USF Averts Budget Knife in New Year

By Richard Danielson

Full Article is available here.

TAMPA — In response to this year's cuts by the Legislature, many Florida universities are killing academic programs or laying off professors, or both.

But not the University of South Florida.

That's because the university already has gone through two years of painful pruning. Since 2007, it has cut 595 jobs and re-organized its College of Arts and Sciences.

"We took our lumps, if you will, a year ago," provost Ralph Wilcox said. "It prepared us well, although we're not done."

In the long run, he said, USF has more work to do to balance its budget. But for the coming year, he expects not to eliminate any academic programs and anticipates "negligible" faculty cuts.