I am deeply concerned for the future of Arizona State University. ASU has taken its share of budget cuts to help the state deal with its revenue shortfall -- and we are prepared to do more. But Senate Appropriations Chair Russell Pearce and House Appropriations Chair John Kavanagh, without considering the full array of options, have singled out education for the largest cuts. Their plan would reverse all of the progress ASU has made and set the institution back a decade or more.

ASU has already taken more than $37 million in state funding cuts and prepared for further reductions by eliminating a total of 500 staff positions and 200 faculty associate positions. We have disestablished schools and merged academic departments while managing to preserve academic quality.

On top of these cuts, the Pearce and Kavanagh proposal would require ASU to cut another $70 million, or 35% of our remaining state funding, in less than five months. Another cut of $155 million is proposed for FY10. Three of our past Legislative initiatives -- the research infrastructure bill of 2004, the Polytechnic campus construction package of 2006 and the SPEED construction stimulus bill of 2008 -- would be defunded. The cuts to our base budget are both cumulative and permanent and to put them into perspective, they are equal to:

• A base General Fund budget reduction of nearly 40% from the FY08 level; or
• Doubling the number of ASU students without state funding to 40,000; or
• Cumulatively reducing per student funding by almost $3,200;

 To deal with cuts of this magnitude, we would need to:

• Layoff thousands more employees;
• Have a massive furlough of all remaining employees for two weeks or longer;
• Increase tuition and fees; (replacing the cuts by raising tuition alone would require a tuition rate of almost $11,000 for Arizona residents)
• Close academic programs.
• Close a campus or possibly two.

Our legislature has failed to live up to its constitutionally mandated responsibility to fund education. Borrowing funds, running a budget deficit (which Arizona is constitutionally allowed to do for one year) and raising taxes are not politically popular. But the alternative will be even less popular – creating for Arizona a Third World education and economic infrastructure.

We can use this deficit as an excuse to take a chainsaw to vital public services or we can work our way out of our current budget problems -- exploring every option -- without sacrificing our future. To that end, I will make ASU’s economic and financial expertise available to our state leaders. I welcome your constructive feedback at president@asu.edu.

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