Responding to a question about whether or not the budget cuts will be permanent, Palms said, "The blunt answer to that is, 'yes.'"

In the past, the state has used non-reoccurring revenue income to fund some budget items, but that income will not be available in the future, Palms explained.

"It's a precarious way to fund a budget, and it's catching up with us now," Palms said. "This is not happy news, but we have to deal with it the best we can."

Continuing the budget discussion, Provost Odom said the University is looking at a budget cut of 11.5 percent next year. That number can be reduced to about 8 percent, he added, in "the best case scenario after we factor in what we can do with other revenue."

In a memo to faculty and staff March 2, President Palms outlined plans to raise tuition and increase the size of the freshman class by 500 students to offset the impact of the budget cut. He also mentioned a "combination of institutional measures"—including reductions in force, reductions in campus services, furloughs, and internal budget reallocations—to minimize the effect of the cut.

Odom stressed that the University will not know the exact size of the cut until the state legislature approves the budget. "We still don't know where we are," he said. "We feel like what came out of the House Ways and Means Committee is what will come out of the House, but we're not certain about the Senate.

"We are so late in this fiscal year that, more than likely, we are going to be looking at the use of management tools plus some across the board cuts. That is for next year because we have to have this cut in place by July 1.

"At the same time, I would like to think the leadership at the administrative and faculty level would be willing to look much more closely, as soon as we can, at a strategy for cuts throughout this University," he continued. "That's not across the board. That's some other way of looking at the budget."

Odom said that process has not been determined but that he has discussed it with the Faculty Budget Committee and deans.

"The president and I have had a number of discussions with the Administrative Council but, I think, what we need to do is look at our budget in a strategic way, and we need to do it fairly quickly, but we clearly cannot do it quickly enough to have what we want to do in place by July 1, 2001."

Odom asked faculty members to address any input on the budget to the Faculty Budget Committee.

Updating dean searches, Odom said the University has extended an offer to a candidate for dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, "but we're not holding out a lot of hope."

The search committee for an associate provost and dean of the graduate school has recommended two candidates for the position. Odom said their names will be released after all other candidates are notified that they are not being considered. Harris Pastides, dean of the School of Public Health, is chair of the internal search.

Odom said he and other University officials recently interviewed four candidates for vice president for business and finance, the University's chief financial officer, in Atlanta.

"I'm particularly pleased to be able to tell you that each one of those candidates has higher education experience and is currently affiliated with an institution of higher education," Odom said. "Sometime within the next several weeks, we will bring at least three of those candidates to campus, and they will interview with a number of groups."

Faculty Senate Secretary Sarah Wise, retailing, announced that the summer Faculty Senate meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. June 20, a date earlier than normal. Because the Law School Auditorium will be unavailable, the location will be announced later.