By Scott Harvey
Commerce – Texas A&M University-Commerce has announced they have met a five percent budget reduction, as mandated by the state legislature. Total reductions will equal $3,281,923 for the 2010-11 biennium.
"We've looked at areas such as facilities, administrative support services and business services. And those areas are the ones that have seen the initial reductions," said Bob Brown, vice president for business and administration.
Despite the cuts, Brown reiterated that the university remains committed to funding programs that impact the university's mission of transforming students' lives by providing opportunities and access to higher education.
"The university remains committed to growth directed by its strategic plan," Brown said. "The president has mandated that we, as the university community, continue our pursuit of innovation, and despite these cuts, we will strive to uphold that goal."
Brown pointed out the university's efforts in avoiding the trap that institutions can fall into when attempting to cut costs.
"I think that whenever there is time to reduce budget it can, if you're not careful, reduce momentum," Brown said. "So the University's been working very hard to make sure that those cuts didn't affect most directly students in the classroom or faculties in their classrooms and labs."
Brown acknowledges that the cuts have required to the university, along with other state entities, to get creative about saving money.
He notes the recently installed chilled water loop, which connects to the chillers in the old Sam Rayburn Student Center and have increased the efficiency of that loop, therefore using less electricity. Brown continued by stating the university has contracted out a lot of its fleet operations as opposed to doing it in house, so that they're being done by a private provider.
"I think you're going to see everyone do that sort of thing and try to be creative with how administrative and support services are done before we approach classrooms."