Spring Break
Budget Bust
Part 7: Twenty Years Later
Tyler Will
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: News
11/14/08-University of Rhode Island President Robert L. Carothers and R.I. Gov. Donald Carcieri spokesperson Amy Kempe acknowledged that Rhode Island's economy has an effect on government support of public higher education.
Kempe said the state expects a $233.6 million revenue shortfall for the Fiscal Year 2009, and that the Carcieri administration have been working the last several weeks "on initiatives to address the budget situation."
"These are extremely difficult economic times and they will have to make dramatic changes," Kempe said of the Carcieri administration.
The administration will look to "reduce expenditures" and considering possible revenue-enhancing policies in the future, Kempe said.
Carothers said URI is at the approximate funding level that it was in 1989, and it costs the university $25,000 a year per student for tuition only. Out-of-state students pay that entire sum, but in-state students pay about $8,000. and this leads to a deficit, he said.
Even with state funding, Carothers said URI receives about $15,000 per each in-state student, an unsustainable figure from a business perspective.
"The sad part about all that is that if people were mad at us, we could change things … you never hear anyone say anything negative about the university, people just don't care," he said, referring to a lack of complaints from citizens about reduced state funding.
And because of that indifference, Carothers said there was opposition to his idea to put the state funding into a scholarship fund.
Kempe said since URI's funding is about the same level it was in 1989, the university's budget hasn't actually decreased. When asked about a $17.5 million cut to higher education in the spring, she pointed to the state's economic hardship.
"The state announced it has a $372 million budget deficit this year alone," Kempe said. "These are certainly very difficult times."
Carothers said the economic problems are reducing the state's support of public higher education, but in the 1970s people began seeing higher education as a private benefit, instead of a public good.
Kempe said the state expects a $233.6 million revenue shortfall for the Fiscal Year 2009, and that the Carcieri administration have been working the last several weeks "on initiatives to address the budget situation."
"These are extremely difficult economic times and they will have to make dramatic changes," Kempe said of the Carcieri administration.
The administration will look to "reduce expenditures" and considering possible revenue-enhancing policies in the future, Kempe said.
Carothers said URI is at the approximate funding level that it was in 1989, and it costs the university $25,000 a year per student for tuition only. Out-of-state students pay that entire sum, but in-state students pay about $8,000. and this leads to a deficit, he said.
Even with state funding, Carothers said URI receives about $15,000 per each in-state student, an unsustainable figure from a business perspective.
"The sad part about all that is that if people were mad at us, we could change things … you never hear anyone say anything negative about the university, people just don't care," he said, referring to a lack of complaints from citizens about reduced state funding.
And because of that indifference, Carothers said there was opposition to his idea to put the state funding into a scholarship fund.
Kempe said since URI's funding is about the same level it was in 1989, the university's budget hasn't actually decreased. When asked about a $17.5 million cut to higher education in the spring, she pointed to the state's economic hardship.
"The state announced it has a $372 million budget deficit this year alone," Kempe said. "These are certainly very difficult times."
Carothers said the economic problems are reducing the state's support of public higher education, but in the 1970s people began seeing higher education as a private benefit, instead of a public good.
