Bsu To Cut Seven Full-Time Positions Jobs Axed In Response To Batt’s Call For Spending Cuts

Boise State University will eliminate seven full-time faculty positions in response to Gov. Phil Batt’s call for spending cuts.

“It ain’t fun, and we have some unhappy campers. I know it hurts,” Boise State President Charles Ruch said.

Ruch on Friday announced a plan to trim $1.5 million from the university’s $60.1 million budget to comply with state cutbacks and to make up for funding setbacks tied to a 1994 enrollment drop.

The plan also eliminates two part-time faculty positions and reduces hours for five others. Two full-time and one part-time support staff position also will be cut, and five staff members will have reduced hours.

The cutbacks are effective July 1.

Wallace Kay, associate dean for Boise State’s honors program, received notice Friday that his job would be eliminated.

“I’m not in shock, because I’ve had six weeks to prepare, but I am dismayed,” said Kay, who has been at the university for 10 years.

Besides teaching English courses, Kay’s responsibilities include recruiting and tracking the progress of honors students and advising students on their senior projects.

Provost Daryl Jones said students would not be affected by the change because the honors work would be transferred to the director of the program.

University officials do not know whether the cuts will mean fewer class offerings.

Jones, head of the executive budget committee that drafted recommendations for Ruch, said the goal is to minimize the impact on students. The committee tried to cut faculty in larger departments and where “increased productivity” from remaining faculty could make up for the loss, Jones said.

A lag in tax revenues prompted the governor in September to order 2-percent holdbacks in the budgets of all state agencies. Statewide, that totals $27 million in cuts, with public schools facing the largest, at $13 million.

State Rep. Kathleen Gurnsey of Boise, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, said Friday that chances are the money would not be restored even if revenues rebound dramatically.

“First, everyone will want to restore the public school holdback,” Gurnsey said.

Ruch said he decided across-the-board cuts would not be good for Boise State. Some departments - including athletics and the university’s fledgling engineering program - were spared.