The needs of low-income students, out-of-state students, students who need to work to pay tuition, and the rest of the student body were the main topics at the annual open hearing on budget and tuition matters.

With New Jersey as the only state in the nation to reduce funding for higher education over the past two years, Rutgers officials and students are trying to blunt the impact of a proposed $38 million cut to its operating budget.

About 35 people in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick attended the hearing at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick April 7. Newark and Camden attendees participated via videoconference.

Les Goodman, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Rutgers Board of Governors, and Duncan MacMillan, chair of the board’s Educational Planning and Policy Committee, presided over the meeting.

Vice President for University Budgeting Nancy Winterbauer outlined the basics of New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine’s proposal, which calls for an overall 3.5 percent reduction in state funding of higher education.

“New Jersey has the unfortunate distinction of being the only state in the country that cut its appropriation in higher education over the last two years,” Winterbauer said. “You can imagine the difficulty in providing for students the classes and the services that they need.”

Although the proposal increases funding for financial aid programs like Tuition Aid Grants and NJ STARS, there is not enough money allocated for higher education to stall off cuts to the Rutgers budget. Overall, Rutgers’ direct state appropriation, not including salary increase and benefit funding, will decrease 11.6 percent under Corzine’s plan. The state legislature must pass a budget, and Corzine must sign it, by June 30. The Board of Governors will establish 2008–09 tuition and fees at its July meeting.

Winterbauer told the audience that the proposed amount for direct operating funds from the state – $290.6 million – is less than it was 11 years ago. A massive cut of more than $60 million in the 2007 fiscal year contributed to that severe reduction.

“We have to look at how much we can trim our current programs and services after deep, deep cuts we made two years ago,” Winterbauer said.

Jim Kline, president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly, noted that his tuition has increased by 25 percent, or an average $1,748 per year, since he arrived at Rutgers in 2004. He called for the board and Rutgers administrators to consider increasing tuition at a rate on par with inflation, around 4 percent.

Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick said that a tuition increase of that size would require bigger cuts in programs and services . “Fortunately, the amount of financial aid we are able to award our students is ... relatively high, but we know full well it’s not enough,” McCormick said.

Kline also asked the university to advocate shared services among its units. Executive Vice President Philip Furmanski said that his budget advisory committee has already asked units at Rutgers how they plan to save money to prepare for the next academic year, noting that many units at Rutgers already share services within and outside the university.

“There will be no across-the-board cuts; any cuts we make have to be strategic, and they have to be predicated on what is most important to our core academic mission,” Furmanski said. “Cuts need to be based on a consideration of things like efficiencies and economies where units can combine their resources.”