Here’s a news item from Chris Beytes of the GrowerTalks newsletter. Makes me worry about the budgets for our Cornell extension offices, with financial woes across New York state.
“Big budget cuts coming to MSU
“Times are tough all over, and the academic world has been hard hit by ongoing budget cuts in recent years (anyone seen an extension agent lately?), but Michigan State University is really up against it: Recent reports say that major budget cuts are coming to the college of agriculture and all of its departments, including horticulture. And a new report is circulating, saying that Michigan’s extension service could shut down completely as of November 1 if Michigan Governor Granhold vetoes the line items that fund MSU Extension (MSUE) and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES). If that happens, both operations will close immediately and all extension programs and services—including things like 4-H—will cease.

I spoke with Dr. Vance Baird, new professor and chair of MSU’s horticulture department (he came from Clemson July 1), for details on the cuts:

“The basic scenario is that we’ve had a 5% cut this year, and that’s unilateral across all the colleges,” Vance explained. “The prediction is that, in addition to this 5%, over the next three years cuts will total around 20%.” He says next year’s cut may be about 7%, followed by 4% cuts in each of the next two years.

That’s not all. Vance says there’s an additional 1% “efficiency factor” that the provost holds back, that the college doesn’t see. So if the state gives them 4% less, it’s really 5% less.

What does that mean in dollars?

“If you add up the dollars that the dean is having to cut out to try to make that over the next four years, including what was removed this year, that’s pushing $6 million dollars,” Vance answers.

That’s a big cut, and unfortunately, there’s not much fat available to cut. Most of it has to come from muscle—payroll.

“Like almost any college in the U.S., [MSU’s] budget is at least 90% salary,” Vance explains, “and so if you need to take $6 million out of the budget, and 90% or more of it is salary, then a large percentage of that $6 million is going to have to be salary reduction.”

To reach those salary cuts, he says, you’d prefer to have faculty retire. “The colleges, I’m sure, have all done the math and looked to see who is of the right age and has enough time in to consider retiring.” However, thanks to the economy, “Most people’s retirement portfolio is insufficient to say, ‘Oh yeah, I think I’ll just do the university a favor and retire.’ So unless there’s a ‘stimulus package’ for retirement, I don’t know that you’re going to get a lot of people volunteering to retire at a rate any quicker than you would, regardless,” Vance says. “It’s like a double whammy: you need to save money because there isn’t enough to go around, while there’s not enough for someone to see a comfortable retirement, either.”

Horticulture, Vance says, is one of the larger departments within agriculture, and has a number of faculty who are of retirement age. “I would think the standard scenario is that, at a minimum, we will lose positions through retirement and attrition over the next four or five years, and the vast majority of those will not be replaced.”

How can we help?
I asked Vance if politicking from the industry would do any good, or if every department in the university will feel the pain equally.

“It’s hard to say,” he replied. “Politicking can be helpful sometimes, but it can be detrimental at others. You can win a battle and lose a war. I think our industry is strong and wants to help, but they understand that it may not be in their best interest just to dig their heels in now until they see what the plan is.”

Will horticulture be eliminated, or might it be rolled into another department?

“I think it’s very likely it would be rolled into another department, that the existing departments here will be consolidated into something larger that’s perceived to be more efficient, financially, and more efficient at bringing in outside sources of money,” he says.

One long-term issue has to be staff morale. Who wants to stay in a workplace where constant budget cuts are the norm? Vance seems to agree.

“The fear is, the bright, young, dynamic faculty here, as dedicated as they may be to the university and the commodities and the science and disciplines that they’re involved in, they’ve got to feed their families. They’ve got to move their careers forward. And they may look elsewhere to do that.”

MSU horticulture has, at my count, 39 professors and 34 staff, including folks we’ve worked closely with, like Bridget Behe, John Biernbaum, Art Cameron, Erik Runkle and Cathy Whitman. It would be a shame for MSU to lose any of this talent.

Want to know more about the cuts? HERE is a website that discusses the programs that may be in jeopardy. There is a “How to Help” section—one suggestion is to contact Michigan legislators with your stories of how MSU programs have benefited your business.