University administrators are divided over the effects the statewide budget crisis is having onfaculty and their programs.
Despite deep cuts in the University budget, students themselves have been insulated from the most severe pain of budget slashing, College Dean Edward L. Ayers said.
"Our highest priority is making sure we offer a first-rate education," Ayers said.
With this goal in mind, Ayers said the University "made sure students didn't bear the brunt" of the cutbacks after the most recent round of the budget crisis.
The College instead trimmed its budget by canceling 25 new hires, eliminating University money for faculty travel and approving a 15 percent reduction in faculty phone bills.
In most cases, doctoral candidates have filled the 25 canceled positions. Although this means more courses are not being taught by permanent faculty, Ayers feels the University's doctoral candidates are exceptionally qualified.
"Next year, they could be teaching at the most prestigious colleges in the country," Ayers said.
The hiring of more temporary faculty allowed administrators to maintain normal class sizes and courses offered this fall, he added.
Although he described the faculty as being in "emergency mode," Ayers, who recently spoke before the Faculty Senate, said faculty members agree with his student-first approach.
"I hope people recognize the fact that a lot of people are making sacrifices to put as much money as possible to teaching," Ayers said.
Ayers pointed out that of the 20 faculty members who were offered positions at other institutions last year, half stayed in Charlottesville, a rate he considers normal.
But some don't agree with Ayers' glowing appraisal of the faculty suffering together.
Ayers is "living in some kind of fantasy," said Everett Crosby, chairman of Medieval Studies.
Budget cuts have created "a lot of bitterness and a lot of complaints" among the faculty, Crosby said.
Far from a collective struggle that unifies the faculty, Crosby said the budget cuts are a burden that each faculty member has to bear.
Faculty members have been confronting the cutbacks for some time, by tolerating the absence of yearly pay raises, Crosby said.
University administrators are working hard to get outside funding to soothe the financial woes. Officials have patched together funding from several private sources, including the Seven Society.
Gov. Mark R. Warner has requested that schools draw up plans for another possible 7 percent cut. The cutback would eliminate over $4.5 million in College funds.
Recent budget cuts have deprived the College of the opportunity to seek out and hire distinguished professors. Hiring new permanent faculty is important if the College wants to ward off a gradual erosion of the 700-member faculty, Ayers said.
The loss of state funding has had a harsher impact on smaller, more specialized schools at the University.
With another large impending cut, the Architecture school, which already has lost three staff positions, possibly would be forced to let go of more faculty members.
"Being such a small school, the loss of three staff positions is huge," Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen said.
Because University policy leaves individual schools on their own to do fundraising, and because of its small alumni base, the Architecture school is limited in its ability to raise money, Van Lengen said.
Because there is no flexibility in the funding required to maintain its programs, any future cuts would have to come from the school's non-professional programs. The school already has been forced to cut 10 percent from its budget, a loss Van Lengen says is "very significant."
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