Editor’s note: The complete version of the editorial is below.
The Facts: Gov. Perdue released her budget that showed a six percent reduction to the UNC System budget back in February. Chancellor Woodson reassured students 15 percent was the extreme, and N.C. State could only expecting an eight percent cut. Now, the North Carolina House of Representatives has released their budget plan, which includes a 15.5 percent cut to the UNC System.
Our Opinion: The chancellor needs to keep up communication between representatives in the General Assembly to make sure these cuts do not make it to the final budget, for the sake of N.C. State he should keep his promises.
Our representatives have not properly done their job of not only communicating the course of action to us, but also have not kept their word on the cuts in funding.
Chancellor Woodson inherited the worst set of budget cuts last year our University had ever seen, and it is his responsibility to ensure N.C. State takes the right course of action by its student, faculty and community. He should be battling representatives to give education a chance—and this begins with ensuring this round of budget cuts doesn’t pass.
Woodson has the largest voice for students and faculty at N.C. State and he should use it. He should be talking over the budget situation with representatives and showing them our campus and the positive impacts it has on the state. The legislators should be regularly visiting our campus to see what we are up to.
Along with this, he should be communicating with the student body to try and find out what we want, and how we should combat these current cuts. This issue needs to be publicized, not handled behind closed-doors. Tell us specifically how we can give feedback and show us how our voices are heard.
While some cuts to programs and student services are a necessary evil, the evaluation of which cuts to make can and should be decided with the student body, not for them. Opening the lines of communication could prevent such drastic measures as the recently elimination of OASIS and its pre-law advisor.
According to the Recommendation for Strategic Realignment, some of the major changes include the merger of colleges and the elimination of over 60 program areas.
The combination of the Colleges of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Agriculture and Life Savings and Natural Resources into one college would subsidized the resources already neglected to students in these colleges. Faculty and staff would be cut and resources from the University to and from the colleges would be realigned elsewhere. This would damage, rather than help, the individual colleges.
The elimination of programs concentrates N.C. State’s diverse degree options to a mere handful, making our University less attractive to prospective students. This is the last thing we would want—a decrease in tuition-paying students.
One of the more efficient points of the plan includes cutting down on organizational bureaucracy, which includes reducing the committees in the Board of Trustees. This should also be adapted to our own bureaucracy, by eliminating the assistants to the assistants of the department heads. These positions only draw out the time and money needed to save other areas of our University.
Woodson’s voice must echo the wants and needs of the N.C. State community. He must be held accountable for the next series of actions he take to take-on these proposed cuts. While he has been recommended a plan to combat the budget cuts, he should ensure his priorities are properly aligned with what is in the best interests of the students—this does not include cutting programs and merging colleges.
This was the angle we were going for. The chancellor made promises in his January and his March addresses. If the budget passes at 15.5 percent, he cannot keep them. We also want him to communicate with the student body so they can get involved as well. They need to know what he is saying to legislators and how they should respond.
