KU taking piecemeal approach to $4.8 million budget cuts for current fiscal year

Kansas University leaders this week are still trying to decide how to save nearly $5 million over the next few months.

Responding to statewide spending cuts announced earlier this month by Gov. Sam Brownback that are needed to close a budget gap created by lower-than-projected state revenue, KU leaders are discussing how to trim $2.7 million from the Lawrence campus budget and $2.1 million from the KU Medical Center budget for this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Entire programs aren’t threatened by the cuts, said Tim Caboni, KU vice chancellor for public affairs. Rather, savings will probably be achieved through leaving jobs unfilled, delaying nonurgent expenditures and cutting costs at departmental levels, he said.

“We’re working hard to manage the reductions at the university level in a way that doesn’t significantly affect our operation,” Caboni said.

Overall, the cuts account for 2 percent of KU’s state general fund dollars.

At KU Medical Center, the effort is more centralized, with top administrators and finance staff deciding where to create savings, Caboni said.

At the Lawrence campus, deans and vice provosts were asked to find savings in their respective areas, Caboni said.

For academic departments, prescribed cuts range from about two-tenths of a percent to 1.1 percent. Nonacademic areas are being cut about seven-tenths of a percent.

The Office of Public Affairs, for example, plans to call off some planned marketing and advertising to reach its goal of cutting $9,000, Caboni said.

“It may mean that we don’t reach as many prospective students,” he said. “It’s those kinds of delays that in the short term may not seem like difficult decisions, but over time the cumulative effect can be negative.”

Caboni said he expects cuts to be decided on in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, he said, KU continues to face challenges as lawmakers prepare the state’s budget for the upcoming year. Two of KU’s 2015 legislative priorities — a Drug and Vaccine Discovery Institute and merit raises at KU Medical Center, pitched partly as economy-growers — were shot down by a House budget subcommittee, among other enhancements requested by Kansas Board of Regents schools.

“Obviously, we know this is a difficult budget year for the Legislature and are certainly monitoring 2016 and 2017 very closely,” Caboni said.