From the weekend: a look at how budget cuts at UNC system campuses are hitting the classroom.

It all depends on who you talk to. Some professors, advisors and the like are really struggling to cut costs. And some students, like Jarmir Smith, who you'll meet in this story, are feeling it, too. 

But others, like the freshmen in Don Raleigh's freshman seminar at UNC Chapel Hill, say they don't see the problem. Of course, they just got to college and have little basis for comparison.

It should be noted: while UNC-CH raised its cap on freshman seminar enrollment to 24 students, not all seminars have that many students this fall. And, the university asked professors whether they'd mind the higher enrollment before expanding it from 20; those who didn't like the idea of larger seminars didn't have to host them. 

Since this story focused on public universities, we didn't cover the effects of the economy on private colleges. But I talked to some folks at Duke about this too last week.

There, officials say they're able to avoid academic cuts by paring costs in other areas. New construction has been halted, for example, and plans across campus to replace computers and other office equipment are being delayed, said Michael Schoenfeld, a Duke spokesman.

And housekeepers will no longer clean residence halls on Saturdays.

"We are doing things at the margins that will be noticeable to students," Schoenfeld said.

UPDATE (8/18/09): Orange County Schools will continue to employ its six retired educators in the fall, according to assistant superintendent for human resources Greg Hicks, at the Orange board meeting last night. If the legislation to allow them to double-dip expires Oct. 1, two of the teachers will finish the semester out as full-time temps and then go back into retirement. The other four, however, said they plan to come out of retirement to continue teaching in the spring semester.

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Original post on Chapel Hill-Carrboro written 8/10/09:

Just got off the phone with Chapel Hill-Carrboro superintendent Neil Pedersen who told me the school district's four retired-but-rehired teachers won't be coming back next year.

You may remember hearing about teachers like Charles Stewart from a story written by Alicia Banks a few weeks ago. Stewart was one of 2,067 retired educators in the state who benefited from special legislation that allowed retired educators to work full time under one-year contracts while also receiving retirement pay.

The original purpose of the law was to allow districts to fill critical vacancies with experienced teachers in the short-term. Because of a long budget process, the status of teachers like Stewart was unknown for most of the summer. Now, the district says they will be unable to extend contracts to the four retired educators who were working last year.

There is some good news, though. Pedersen also told me that most of the nearly 100 teachers and 40 teaching assistants who were put "on notice" about their jobs in June will be able to return to their positions in the fall.

"We were successful in anticipating the magnitude of the reductions," Pedersen said. "For the most part, we were on target."

A sign of the dire budget times at Florida State: The English department has cut telephones from its budget.

Yes, English professors there are actually having their office phones removed, according to this story in the Tallahassee Democrat.

Do you have a similar tale of penny-pinching at a Triangle university? Drop me a line at eric.ferreri@newsobserver.com.

Center to close on Sundays

Educators rally to protest proposed N.C. budget cuts to education at the NCAE center on Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh on Saturday afternoon, ... more

Here are a couple of letters from readers upset about state budget cuts. One is regarding the N.C. Symphony and the other public school teachers.

Four top Duke University officials will answer questions today about the issue on the minds of so many Duke workers: budget cuts.

Of chief interest: Whether there will be layoffs and whether Duke will offer a retirement buy-out deal.

Duke recently announced plans to reduce its operating budget $125 million over the next three years.

The forum will be at noon in the Griffith Film Theater at the Bryan Center on campus.

The administrators fielding questions today will be Provost Peter Lange, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask, finance vice president Hof Milam, and Kyle Cavanaugh, the head of human resources.

Education talk is the subject of the (probable) last installment of soundbites from the editorial board meeting with Gov. Beverly Perdue this month. Perdue lamented coming cuts in the state's education budget and talked of one program she will never cut: early college credits for high school students. She also talked of her decision to shift the power in the state's education hierarchy from the elected superintendent of public instruction (June Atkinson) to her appointed CEO and board chairman (Bill Harrison).

In a recent blog post, I wrote about UNC President Erskine Bowles' desire to keep budget cuts to the public university system lower than it appears the state is headed.

Well, here are some specifics, via our local public universities here in the Triangle, on how the cuts might affect campus services. The information comes from a 24-page report to the UNC system's Board of Governors that you can read in its entirety by clicking the link below this post.

Highlights:

At N.C. Central University, a seven percent cut to next year's budget amounts to a loss of $6.6 million and would bring about, among other things:

• The elimination of 54 positions, 22 of which are faculty.

•  Elimination of 340 class sections

• Reduction of 2.5 police department positions, 6 housekeeping positions and 2 groundskeepers.

At N.C. State, a seven percent cut is about $36 million. Specific cuts would include:

• 404 positions eliminated including about 70 faculty slots.

• 180 class sections eliminated, most in general education courses affecting all students.

• Course reductions in biological sciences, College of Education and engineering labs.

• Library will close for third shift, cancel 1,200 journals and buy 4,200 fewer books annually.

• Study abroad and community engagement programs will be cut by one quarter.

• Emerging programs in textiles, design, management, humanities and social sciences will be eliminated.

• The Agricultural Research Service would lose 78 positions, all of which are filled.

At UNC Chapel Hill, a seven percent cut amounts to a loss of $40 million. Among the cuts:

• 267 positions eliminated, 107 of which are faculty slots. 62 faculty slots are in health affairs.

• Loss of allied health faculty would lead to an increase in the shortage of physical therapists, radiology assistants and audiologists.

• 372 fewer course sections could be offered.

 The UNC system's Board of Governors will discuss all of this next week.

Documents:

We've been writing a lot about budget cuts in higher education lately and want to hear your stories.

If you work at or attend a local university here in the Triangle and have a story to tell, observation to make or complaint to rant about, we'd love to hear it.

Send me an email at Eric.Ferreri@newsobserver.com.