The University’s interim chancellor said Thursday that budget woes will lead to a reduction in course offerings and personnel, including former first lady Mary Easley.

Jim Woodward, who took over as chancellor Tuesday, said he informed Easley on Wednesday of his decision to eliminate her position.

“She is no longer an employee of this institution,” Woodward said in a press conference in Holladay Hall. “This was in my view the right decision given the circumstances we find ourselves in today.”

The circumstances, Woodward said, involved the possibility of more than a 10-percent reduction in state appropriations for the University—an amount that could be more than $65 million and would result in the elimination of positions.

“By definition a university is mostly its people,” Woodward said, pointing out that after earlier reductions across the University, personnel cuts were the only viable option if more funds were to be cut. “We’re looking at 300-500 positions at this campus that we’re going to eliminate.”

Woodward said the University had already eliminated 50 positions, and said his decision to terminate Easley was mostly due to portions of her job responsibilities already being terminated.

“Some of the areas she’s involved with have already been eliminated or reduced,” Woodward said. “I didn’t need to look any further.”

But the University will look further, Woodward said, as it seeks to protect its academic core while cutting excesses like new academic centers and the Millennium Seminar Series, both of which were responsibilities charged to the former first lady.

“[The budget reduction] will lead to the reduction in course offerings, it will lead to increased class size,” Woodward said. “There is no alternative but to do that. [The reduction] will lead to the review of the various programs we offer and the elimination of low-enrollment, low-demand programs.”

Woodward said the planned cuts were still only in the preliminary phase, though, and that the true ramifications of the cuts won’t be known until the General Assembly releases its final budget.

“These are plans,” Woodward said. “These do not reflect final decisions.”