UTC girds for 'rough times ahead'

Some departments likely to experience cuts, while others gain

photo A sign reads "Your Voice, Your UT" to advertise an employee survey on Wednesday on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

UTC AT A GLANCE• Employees•: 1,203 full time, 899 part time• Total revenue••: $181,593,163• Read more: www.utc.edu/budget-rebalancing• In 2013•• In 2013 from tuition, state appropriations and other sources

Faculty and staff at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga have embarked on a process to help figure out how to reallocate $5.5 million, or roughly 5 percent of the campus' overall budget.

"We are not in a crisis, but we do see rough times ahead," Chancellor Steve Angle said on a university website dedicated to the budget rebalancing process. "We have the opportunity to plan and make thoughtful decisions."

Committees will meet until spring to set priorities. The process is sort of a zero-sum game in which funding will stay the same, but some departments will get more while others get less. There's some anxiety among staff, UTC officials say, but nothing's going to be certain until April, when Angle will make the final budget decisions.

"To be honest, it means there will be some cuts," UTC spokesman Chuck Cantrell said. "Somebody may be cut so somebody else gets [funding]."

Instead of being asked to do more with less, "we've been asked to do more with the same," said Susan Davidson, the nursing professor who is president of UTC's Faculty Senate.

"We are in the middle of reviewing everything. We haven't come to any conclusions, yet," Davidson said. "Some people, they're nervous about it. I think of it as a challenge. This is our chance to make changes."

The process is needed because higher education is in a time of change, Angle said in a September presentation to faculty. Some experts predict that the bottom quarter of American colleges will merge or disappear in the next 10 to 15 years, Angle said then, because of "disruptions" such as online education.

Another unknown cited by Angle is how many Tennessee students will opt for two-year instead of four-year degrees because of Tennessee Promise, Gov. Bill Haslam's new initiative to cover the costs of community or technical college for any high school senior in Tennessee. A majority of the state's seniors have applied for Tennessee Promise, which is funded with state lottery money, but it's not clear how many will follow through.

For the first time in a decade, UTC saw its enrollment fall slightly, from 11,674 students last school year to 11,670 now. Enrollment had climbed steadily since fall 2005, when UTC had 8,656 students.

UTC is better positioned than any similar institution to meet the challenges, Angle said in his presentation. With an annual in-state, full-time rate of just over $7,000, UTC is the only public university in Tennessee to earn the 2013 U.S. News and World Report "Best Value" ranking, Angle says on his "welcome" web page to students.

Linda Frost, dean of the Honors College, said UTC isn't alone in taking a look at how it does business.

"It's a reality for higher education right now," she said. "It's an opportunity for us to look carefully at what we do."

Colleges are moving away from generalization, Frost said, and emphasizing their strengths.

"The party line is, we can't be all things to all people," she said. "We are just trying to make sure we are in fabulous shape over the next five, 10, 20 years."

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.

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