Budget Message to President Machen and Provost Glover

Last night I sent the following message to President Machen and Provost Glover:

This afternoon at the Faculty Senate meeting, you asked that we make recommendations directly to you and bring other relevant information to your attention.

I have been informed by the deans of libraries at FSU and USF that their universities have decided not to include the libraries’ materials budgets in the proposed cuts.

In the April 1st submission, we identified $993,942 in cuts to the materials budget for the Smathers Libraries, including HSCL, on top of $534,738 in lost purchasing power.

As the University Library Committee stated in its resolution in support of the Libraries’ budget, “A cut in library budgets would have a detrimental effect on every educational and research program at the University.”

The Libraries’ budgets were held harmless in 2008-2009 in spite of the difficult economic situation and the campus was grateful, as were the Libraries’ faculty and staff. I hope you will consider a similar protection for the Libraries this year, at least for the materials budget.

Thank you.


Provost Glover replied:

Thanks Judy. We will give your comments serious consideration. As you can imagine, the final determination may depend on how many degrees of freedom we have after the Legislature acts. -- Joe