CU announces latest budget-balancing measures

The second round of budget-balancing steps made necessary by cuts in state funding will total $22 million throughout the University of Colorado system. All four campuses and central administration are affected by the measures for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, which follows the current fiscal year's budget reduction of $29 million.

The CU system announced the proposed package today.

"We are taking prudent steps to ensure we sustain our academic and research enterprises and continue to serve our students and the state," said CU President Bruce D. Benson, who also writes of the budget in his latest electronic newsletter. "It's important that we do our part to manage operating costs."

The two-year total of $51 million in budget-balancing measures is in response to an ongoing $50 million cut to CU's state funding, which is temporarily offset by federal stimulus funding. Stimulus funding runs out next year and will leave CU's base budget permanently reduced. Projected revenue from tuition increases at all campuses, approved last week by the Board of Regents, only will make up an estimated 20 percent of the lost state funding.

The two-year slate of cuts includes the elimination of 338 positions and a $23 million reduction in operating expenses. At the same time, CU is educating 2,100 more students than it was at the start of the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The breakdown of reductions and job cuts over the two fiscal years (2009-10 and 2010-11) by campus and system administration:

• Boulder: $22.3 million; 135.5 positions
• Colorado Springs: $4.9 million; 14.4 positions
• Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus: $23.9 million; 116.4 positions
• Central administration: $8.4 million; 71.7 positions (Because reductions to central administration offset cuts to campuses, this amount is not reflected in the $51 million total.)

Last spring, the university balanced $29 million for the current 2009-10 fiscal year, resulting in approximately 200 fewer positions. Operating budgets were reduced by more than $10 million. For the fiscal year that begins July 1, CU will reduce its work force by another 139 positions and its operating budgets by another $7 million.

Details of reductions to campuses and central administration will be posted at the CU system home page by the next meeting of the Board of Regents on April 22.