Provost Larry Nielsen and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business Charles Leffler will host Open Budget Forums Wednesday and Thursday, and Leffler said the issue of state-mandated budget cuts will be discussed.

This is the fourth year the University has held forums of this type, and Leffler said they are meant to educate the public on the budget and how it is developed.

“We add whatever is most relevant in the given year,” he said. “This year we’ve got tighter financial situations in the state.”

Wednesday’s forum is from 2 to 3 p.m. in the D.H. Hill Library’s Erdahl Cloyd Theatre, and it is open to all students, faculty and staff.

The state budget office will allocate two percent less money for each state institution than originally budgeted, as the University learned in September.

According to Leffler, deans and vice chancellors from each college will have to submit a plan for how to cut their budgets by Nov. 7.

Faculty and staff salaries are more likely to be subject to cuts as they make up a large part of the budget, Leffler said.

“Salaries and benefits are the biggest expenditure of the institution,” he said. “With our institutions, our salaries and benefits are 61 percent of that total budget.”

Many people are unaware of how the budget is compiled and what information is in the budget, Leffler said, so these forums could be helpful to them.

“Our goal is to try to make sense of the very complex budgeting process,” he said.

And budget issues are not going away soon, as there is still the possibility for additional cuts. Leffler said Governor Mike Easley asked for the two percent cut, but UNC president Erskine Bowles asked that the University identify an additional two percent it could cut.

“Anything is possible,” he said. “We’re early in the fiscal year. Anything is on the block at this point.”