Truman’s budget has officially been cut 9 percent from its original funding. The Missouri General Assembly originally called for a 6.6 percent cut, but it was decided by the office of Governor Eric Greitens to cut the 9 percent.
Vice president of administration, finance and planning, Dave Rector says the University planned for the 9 percent cut this year when they made the budget in February.
The main principle when deciding what to cut was to protect academics and student support services.
“The idea was to try to maintain the academic budgets as much as possible,” Rector said.
Operating funds used for things like travel and supplies were cut in Public Safety, Physical Plant, Human Resources, Information Technology, the Registrar’s Office and the Business Office.
Rector said tuition was raised 2.1 percent for in-state students and 3.3 percent for out-of-state. This makes the total in-state tuition $7,666 and the total out-of-state $14,440.
There were several retirements and employment turnovers in departments. This allowed for some budget saving as the university could just combine some positions. Truman is reviewing some positions to decide if they can be eliminated or utilized better.
The university also decided not to give faculty raises this year. This is the better alternative to completely firing staff like some universities have had to do in response to cuts.
According to provost, Janet Gooch, academics wanted to protect student affairs in order to preserve the student experience.
Gooch says the library is one of the departments that is getting cut. The library now needs to evaluate what materials they will purchase after a $100,000 cut. The cut would mainly be the decision of the dean of the library, but previous dean Richard Coughlin retired last year.
In order to handle the budget cuts, administration has decided to combine the newly opened position between the library department heads Amanda Langendoerfer, Janet Romine and Stephen Winn.
Romine, associate dean of libraries for research and instruction, said the arrangement began as a temporary fix and was then chosen as the permanent arrangement.
Langendoerfer, the associate dean of libraries for special collections and museums, said the cut ultimately affected their acquisitions budget and will require the staff to think more about what they plan on purchasing this year.
“We have a responsibility to maintain a core collection and find materials that are appropriate for class use and that will be used by the faculty and students here at Truman,” Langendoerfer said.