The University of Florida will consider eliminating 748 jobs and closing several academic programs to save about $75 million if the next state budget requires cuts approaching 10 percent, university President Bernie Machen said today.

In all, the university has found about $110 million in spending cuts it could pick and choose from depending on how deep state-mandated budget cuts go.

UF won't decide on actual cuts until the state budget is finalized. But after spending time in Tallahassee watching lawmakers debate on the next state budget, Machen told the faculty senate today, "the news is not good."

State lawmakers are hammering out a budget agreement that Machen predicts could hit UF with between $30 million and $90 million in cuts.

Among the programs that could close: the award-winning Documentary Film Institute in the College of Journalism and Communications; geological sciences and religion and communication sciences and disorders in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and educational psychology in the College of Education.

The announcement follows Monday's release of a preliminary budget-cutting plan by Florida State University that also calls for layoffs and program closures.

Besides the nearly $75 million in "worst-case scenario" cuts, UF could further reduce spending by $35 million by imposing a four-day work week for the summer, consolidating communications departments across campus and laying off 111 associated staff, capping the amount of unused vacation time paid out to employees who leave their jobs at 240 hours and requiring faculty and staff to use their own vacation time for the four days the school is closed between Christmas and New Year's, among other actions.

Other cost-cutting options: three weeks of mandatory unpaid time off for all employees that could save $40 million, and across-the-board 5 percent pay cuts that also could save $40 million.

Machen warned that while federal stimulus money could cushion the budget blows to come, the infusion will last only a few years.

Full story here from the Orlando Sentinel