ASU would need to close up to two campuses to deal with proposed budget cuts by the Arizona Legislature that would cut state-funding to the university system by 40 percent next year, ASU officials said Wednesday.
The proposals, introduced by Senate Appropriations Chair Russell Pearce and House Appropriations Chair John Kavanagh, would force ASU to cut costs by up to $126 million by July 2009 and another $194 million by July 2010, officials said.
“We initiated planning today to close the Polytechnic campus,” President Michael Crow told a reporter for the East Valley Tribune.
ASU spokeswoman Julie Newberg said the University is looking into closing the Polytechnic campus, but nothing is definite.
“This budget has not been passed yet,” she said. “We just don’t know.”
Spokeswoman Terri Shafer said the proposed budget cuts are enormous and would require significant steps by the University to counter the losses.
“We could close two campuses and still need to come up with $70 million more,” she said.
“The University has to wait until we find out about the budget cuts before we can take any action,” she said.
The Tribune reported Tuesday that the University was preparing to close the Polytechnic campus if the budget proposals pass, but Shafer and Matt McCoy, vice president of the Polytechnic campus student government, said this was speculation.
“It’s a what-if situation,” McCoy said. “With a 40 percent cut like that, it’s dramatic.”
“Anything could happen.”
McCoy said student leaders at the Polytechnic campus advise students to contact their legislators as well as Senate President Robert Burns and Speaker of the House Kirk Adams.
President Michael Crow released a statement Wednesday saying ASU would have to take several additional measures to deal with the cuts.
The University would have to lay off thousands more employees, furlough all remaining employees for at least two weeks, increase tuition and fees, and close academic programs in addition to closing up to two campuses, Crow said in the statement.
To offset the budget cuts through a tuition increase, tuition for Arizona residents would have to be almost $11,000, he said.
“ASU has taken its share of budget cuts to help the state deal with its revenue shortfall — and we are prepared to do more,” Crow said.
Crow also said Sen. Pearce and Rep. Kavanagh singled out education for the largest cuts without considering all options.
“Their plan would reverse all of the progress ASU has made and set the institution back a decade or more,” he said. “Our Legislature has failed to live up to its constitutionally mandated responsibility to fund education.”
Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu
