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UVA CUTS NOT AS DEEP AS FIRST THOUGHT-THE DILY PROGRESS, SEPTEMBER 22, 2007

Posted: Saturday September 22, 2007

UVa Cuts Not as Deep as First Thought
State to slash 7 percent off university funding

From staff reports / Charlottesville Daily Progress
September 22, 2007

Budget cuts facing the University of Virginia will be slightly less deep than had been expected.

UVa President John T. Casteen III said Friday that the university’s funding from the state will now be slashed by 7 percent (or $10.5 million), rather than 7.5 percent (or $11.4 million), which had previously been announced.

Casteen added that he does not foresee layoffs of UVa employees, as other state government agencies may be forced to do.

“We do not expect that to occur here,” Casteen said at a news conference in which he addressed a range of issues.

However, Colette Sheehy, UVa’s vice president for management and budget, said that some staff positions may be eliminated through attrition. UVa’s budget reduction plans were submitted to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Sept. 10. Sheehy declined to elaborate on the plans.

UVa is able to avoid outright staff layoffs, Casteen said, because its state allocation represents only 9 percent of the univeristy’s total $2.1 billion budget.

“It’s not a remarkably high number,” he said.

Budget reductions, he added, are not necessarily a bad thing. In the past, UVa has streamlined its operations in budget crunches. For example, he said, the massive higher education budget cuts in the late-1990s compelled the university to convert many of its paper documents to electronic form only, saving money and improving efficiency.

Most state agencies in Virginia have been directed to reduce their state budget allocation by 5 percent. Kaine mandated the cuts to make up for a projected $641 million revenue shortfall.

UVa, Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary are subject to deeper cuts because they were awarded greater autonomy from the state under a restructuring plan that allows them more leeway over personnel, fundraising and other functions.