UF's budget cuts beyond mere dollar signs
UF's budget cuts beyond mere dollar signs
By MIKE WALKER
There has been much talk recently in Gainesville about the University of Florida's budget cuts and how they will affect the university, students, the city, and the surrounding area. Really, any budget cuts with some of UF's operating divisions such as its Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) will have statewide ramifications as IFAS, while based out of the UF campus in Gainesville, has satellite research and education labs statewide and also contributes greatly to agricultural-oriented education efforts from the K-12 to college level across the state. As IFAS was one of the hardest hit of all major divisions of UF during this spring's round of budget cuts, IFAS stands to be unable to fill some positions, fund research projects, and in general continue its good work all over Florida-not just in Gainesville. In this sense, IFAS is a prime example of how a loss of funding at UF can reach far beyond just the classroom and why people aside from UF students, faculty, staff and Gainesville citizens need to be concerned about the funding situation for the University.
Why are there budget cuts? In a nutshell, because of the general state of the economy and the fact that Florida has come up short in tax revenue and therefore cuts are needed somewhere to enable the state to continue running on what money is actually in the bank. Most news articles on UF's budget cuts have wasted print on the exact figures of these cuts: how much (or rather, how little) money this or that college or institute will get or will lose with the cuts and how it will affect UF jobs. Of course, these are things that we are all concerned about, but seeing how many million dollars UF has lost in expected funding doesn't tell most of us-and might not even tell the most able of economists-how this situation will translate into a real-world application insofar as lost jobs, new positions which won't be filled, and research or teaching budgets cut. I really don't care about the overall numbers as much as how these numbers will affect teaching, service, and research outcomes and that is harder to report in a small paragraph than sheer numbers, which, come to think about it, may be why other papers have ignored this aspect of things.
I know first-hand how bad the cuts are because I applied for a position within IFAS and found out recently that the position had been closed due to a lack of funding. While droves of UF staff and faculty are not being laid-off (thankfully), new positions-even ones which have already been advertised-are being closed and not filled. In many cases, the departments served by these positions will simply have to make do without and place the duties of these staff on others who, we can assume, already have their own work to do. I took a walk around UF's main campus the other day and noticed some things: UF is in the middle of its Summer-A academic term, so you don't see as many students out and about as you normally would in the fall or spring, but you still see plenty of staff and faculty working in labs and offices. I have worked for UF before and I can tell you very honestly, UF people work hard. Many of my friends are UF staff and faculty and they are some of the most dedicated people I know.
Something else I noticed walking around campus is the physical conditions of buildings and the physical plant in general. While UF has recently built a variety of new, important, buildings such as Pugh Hall, a lot of essential, older, buildings are showing a fair amount weathering and seem in need of renovations. IFAS's own headquarters building, McCarty Hall, certainly is showing its 1956 build date rather badly in places, though part of McCarty's charm is its 1950s style. With ample use of glass brick and sea-green gloss tiles in the main entry and hallways, the large desks out of a James Stewart movie and heavy wooden doors, you feel as if you've gone back in time when you walk through McCarty. Still, lab space is crowded and labs, offices, and classrooms all could use renovations. There is an odd sink set in an alcove in the side of a wall on one floor-apparently intended for the cleaning staff to fill their buckets at this location-which now contains a note imploring people not to turn on the faucet as the sink leaks and will flood a 4-H display case on the floor below. I am sure that IFAS would like to improve on its physical plant and also sure that what I have seen in person is probably the tip of the iceberg in non-essential renovations that are merited, but the funding is probably not available now for such projects.
So there we have two ways where funding cuts are not abstract numbers but real areas of impact: jobs and stewardship of physical resources. UF will not suffer droves of lay-offs nor will its buildings fall apart overnight, but the lack of funding I think on a psychological level really impacted me because I have pride in UF's position as a leading land-grant university and research institution. UF is unique not only in Florida but nationwide in many of the majors it offers and research institutes and labs it houses. Recently, the Gainesville Sun had an article on the "brain drain" which some people fear will, in these times of tight budgets, affect UF with some of our best and brightest faculty leaving the university for other institutions which offer better salaries and working conditions. You have to wonder just how serious an exodus of key faculty and staff we may experience but if you do look at some of the working conditions at UF you also have to conclude that it might not take that much to lure top people away from Gainesville.
Buildings such as Turlington Hall, the aforementioned McCarty, and others are crowded and need improvements. Boxes and surplus items stand in the hallways because there's not enough storage space and leaks appear during rainstorms. While UF is getting a grand new "front door" entry area for the football stadium (paid, it must be noted, by donated funds from the Athletic Association and thus not out of core UF funds) there are key classroom and lab spaces which really also need attention. UF must be lauded for its preservation of its historic campus buildings and renovating the same in a manner that is sympathetic with the original architectural features of these buildings but while the fine old gothic revival structures look as good as ever (and perhaps function better than ever), those buildings built between the 1950s and the 1970s are starting to really show their age.
The University of Florida Campus Historic District, a grouping of buildings added to the National Register as an historic district in 1989, is one of the finest examples in fact of college architecture in the Anglo-American tradition anywhere in the nation. Examples such as Keene-Flint Hall which was designed by architect Willam A. Edwards and built in 1910 (and then in 1999 renovated via the donation of funds from the Keene family) indicate the high acuity of attention and emphasis placed on preservation by the University and alumni such as the Keenes. Though Keene-Flint once sat more or less unused, in poor repair and dedicated to storing surplus desks and adding machines, the building now is restored not only in terms of its physical condition but also in regard to its use as it serves as a classroom and office building once again.
Beyond the numbers, the Gainesville Sun and other news media around the region have done a quality job of impressing on everyone that budget cuts to UF are not going to only affect UF directly but the extended community. It doesn't take a lot of speculation though or a great many newspaper articles to convey this point: I was in the Starbucks at Hunter's Crossing shopping center the other day and found it nearly empty. Talking with the staff on duty I learned that while business was still good, there had been a discernable downturn all the same in customers. Whether customers are, locally, buying less-expensive drinks and such is probably something only a detailed study by Starbucks Corporate could reveal, but talking with a variety of staff members at this and other local locations seems to indicate that even Starbucks, as omnipresent and powerful an icon of American retail as it has become, is not immune to current economic woes. I find this especially interesting in light of UF's budget cuts but also in light of the fact that a new shopping center is being built across from Hunter's Crossing now and will be anchored by a Walgreen's and a branch of the Campus Credit Union. I don't doubt for a minute that these two businesses will survive there, but I have to wonder what luck the owners of the shopping center will have in renting out the smaller units? Whether the dentists, dry cleaners, Chinese take-out joints, and other mainstays of such strip malls find Gainesville in our current climate, an attractive place to expand in right now?
Given the age of the University of Florida and the age of some buildings there, it will take a fair amount of money to keep these up to par. Given the number of students enrolled, the amount of physical plant resources, staff, and faculty required to support those students in their studies, even more funding is needed. As the largest educational institution in the state, whether determined by funding, student enrollment, land holdings, or otherwise, UF serves the entire state and educates more Floridians than any other single institution of higher learning. Despite budget cuts, the two greatest needs I can see for UF at this time in its application of funding must be towards faculty and staff salaries and towards the continued upkeep of extant buildings. An investment in both areas is really an extended investment towards the furthering of UF as an institution as any institution is only as great as those who work for it and the facilities which enable that work. In making tough choices about where to cut corners and save money, I would remind UF to remember the core of its strengths and what makes it a great, leading, institution of high education.
MIKE WALKER is a Gainesville, Florida-based writer and journalist. He writes about ecology, travel, science, action sports, and other topics for this and other publications. He may be reached at: cloudrace@prontomail.com
