UK must allocate cuts in budget with extra care

“Let me be clear: I’m talking about cuts that will bring pain.”

Gov. Steve Beshear’s words rang out at the end of November and sent every state agency running for cover. Kentucky faces a shortfall of more than $450 million for the fiscal year, Beshear announced on Nov. 21, meaning mid-year cuts are possible for all state agencies.

At UK, finding places to sacrifice the few million dollars in the middle of the year that are sure to be taken away is easier said than done.

“Everything’s on the table, from programs to services to people,” UK President Lee Todd said in a Kernel article on Nov. 24.

Which means programs and services — like tutoring, SAFECATS, library hours, the Violence Intervention and Prevention Center, the Hub and the CATS bus — and people — including every faculty, staff, intern and administration position — are at risk.

UK is already preparing for a budget cut, UK spokesman Tom Harris told the Kernel on Nov. 24, and has already started evaluating where these cuts will come from.

The university must take its time and really look at each program and the service it provides to students before determining where to pull funding. As a school working toward top-20 status, funding for research initiatives hold a heavy importance. But this dedication to the 2020 goal doesn’t mean the current undergraduate students should have to suffer.

Scientific research, especially medical, requires a significant amount of funding to gain knowledge. This research has little effect on the students at UK. These researchers should be required to fund their projects with grant money from private donors or groups and not take money from the overall university budget.

In cutting funding for research, UK can afford to take less from services that students rely on to be successful. It would be difficult to defend spending excessive amounts of money on experimenting on apes if retention rates and undergraduate GPAs are suffering.

But cutting these services won’t be enough. UK already absorbed a $20 million reduction over the last 11 months, meaning cuts have already been issued. So additional sacrifices are going to be tight. The problem is UK will see cuts. There is no way around it.

It is important to evaluate each cut individually so students see minimal changes. Don’t cut library hours — students use the library. But if the W.T. Young Library is too expensive, maybe consider opening a smaller library like King Library or the Fine Arts Library 24 hours.

Cuts are inevitable, but UK has to be smart about it. Don’t make the students suffer in obtaining their undergraduate education simply because the state can’t manage its money.