Volume 115, Issue 1
the VISTA “Our Words, Your Voice.”
ucentralmedia.com vistanews1903 @thevista1903 @thevista1903 The Vista
Monday, August 21, 2017
UCO Funding Bucked
Old North, a staple of the University of Central Oklahoma, is located at the west end of campus. UCO is ranked last in funding for students from the Oklahoma government. (Provided/ UCO Video Services).
Christian Tabak @vista1903 Reporter
As public universities and colleges across Oklahoma scramble to adjust their budgets to another year of reduced appropriations funding, a recent study revealed that the Sooner State has led the nation in slashing funding for higher education over the last five years. Since Fiscal Year 2012, state appropriations for higher education have been reduced from $1,042,529,350 to $857,022,108 for what amounted to an overall 17.8 percent decrease, according to a study published by Illinois State
University. The study found that the only other states whose state appropriations saw an overall decrease over the same period were Louisiana, West Virginia, Alaska, Kentucky, Arkansas and Kansas. The trend has continued into Fiscal Year 2018, with the state’s higher education system sustaining a six percent decrease at a time when many institutions are still recovering from FY 2017’s staggering 16 percent cut. Higher education received a $774 million allocation for FY 2018, $36 million less than the $810 million allocated last year and significantly less than the $936 million originally requested for the year by the Oklaho-
ma State Regents for Higher Education. The significant decrease in funding has meant that many universities and colleges across Oklahoma have been forced to implement stringent cost cutting measures, according to Angela Caddell, Associate Vice Chancellor for Communication with the State Regents. “Following the higher education budget reduction for FY 2017, which exceeded $157.9 million, the additional budget cut for FY 2018 will result in a further reduction of academic programs, personnel, student services and college degree completion initiatives,” said Caddell. To help reduce costs further, the
regents have implemented measures such as sharing faculty and administrators between institutions, joint academic degree programs between institutions and the consolidation of campus sites, according to Caddell. Regional universities, such as the University of Central Oklahoma, are amongst the hardest hit by these cuts. UCO’s own appropriation funding has been slashed by almost 40 percent since 2008 and the 2018 reductions have put further strain on the university, according to Patti Neuhold, UCO’s Vice President for Finance.
See “Funds” Continued page 8-9