Presidents react to budget cuts

Posted: Updated:

By David Kenney - bio | email

Governor Barbour created quite a stir this week when he announced drastic budget cuts in state education.

Under his plan, some University campuses would remain open, but they would lose their independent identity.

Budget cuts in education are expected to exceed $1.2 Billion dollars over the next three years.

Under the Governor's plan, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State would merge into Jackson State.

The Mississippi University for Women would become part of Mississippi State.

News that her school could be merged and her position eliminated has Mississippi Valley State University President Donna Oliver and every student that ever attended her school uneasy.

Oliver said, "A school is an alumni's identity; if you take that away and change the name and so forth, then they sort of lose that identity, so they would not be very happy."

Dr. Oliver and other presidents are in Jackson this week discussing the governor's budget plan, and debating his suggestion for mergers.

"We understand these are difficult economic times and changes have to be made, however at Valley we want to remain an independent, effective, valuable institution providing a quality education for all our students," said Oliver.

Governor Barbour hopes to save money by cutting duplicated programs and limiting higher paid president positions.

In the end, state lawmakers will have the final say on if a merger even happens.

Mississippi University for Women President, Dr. Claudia Limbert said, "Basically this is a waiting game at this moment. We've seen the governor's budget. We've read that carefully and were waiting now for the legislature and what they're going to do in January."

IHL President Dr. Hank Bounds said, "I've given the presidents our best estimate on what the downturn will look like and they're going to bring back a plan in January and I think that's the first step we have to take any other conversation can come later."

To avoid a merger, many presidents say they've boosted recruitment, and are hoping for higher enrollment, as they operate under tighter budgets in even tighter economic times.