Programs hit by SAS budget cuts won't feel mch pain

Fiscal Year 2000 marks the first time in five years that SAS is projecting a balanced budget, thanks to a significant increase in revenues along with a reduction in expenditures and additional financial help from the central University administration. "We don't expect any negative consequences," said SAS Vice Dean for Finance and Administration Michael Mandl, adding that cuts to the current $240 million budget should improve the largest of the University's 12 schools overall. This year's budget cuts will reportedly affect the hiring of visiting lecturers, the Physics and Astronomy Department and several research centers. "Our hope is that by using fewer lecturers we will hire more standing faculty than we would have otherwise had," Mandl said. To streamline the budget, the Physics and Astronomy Department was recently forced to vacate its Tandem Accelerator Laboratory. SAS administrators say the move will save the school an estimated $250,000 in operation and management costs. Physics and Astronomy Department Chairperson Paul Langacker said the building loss will not disturb current research. Several years ago, Tandem operations were phased out and the device has been decommissioned since May 1998. However, Langacker was not completely undeterred by the loss. Vacating the building was a "serious inconvenience," since the space could have been used for other projects -- such as constructing a microwave telescope or processing target materials for a solar neutrino experiment, he said. But the loss of the building "did not have a fatal impact on any of our programs," Langacker added, noting that the physicists have retired or are working at the David Rittenhouse Laboratory. The research centers affected by the cuts will now raise funds externally to replace money previously provided by SAS. "It is unlikely that the Center for the Advanced Study of India will suffer a real cut in its budget for Academic Year 1999-2000," Center Director Francine Frankel said. While the center's operating budget has been reduced, Frankel, a Political Science professor, stressed yesterday that the department will not have a problem raising its own funds. SAS Dean Samuel Preston echoed Frankel's optimism, noting that SAS still plans to kick in some funding to the center. "We have asked [the] Board of Directors to step up their funding of the Center for the Advanced Study of India and have offered to match funds that they raise," Preston said yesterday, adding that the Middle East Center will hopefully regain its previous level of funding through support from the federal government. Robert Vitalis, a newly hired Political Science professor and director of the Middle East Center, said it is "entirely reasonable" that the administration require centers to be more entrepreneurial and efficient. "The second of my two main goals over the next three years -- the first being to energize students -- is to increase outside funding of the center through emphasizing innovative programs in undergraduate research," Vitalis said.