Governor Jindal announced his proposal Friday afternoon to close a $1.6 billion shortfall for the budget year that begins July 1, 2015. The University of New Orleans was originally expecting a $17 million budget cut.
Proposed cuts at UNO are now supposed to be around $10 million, less than expected. Still, nobody’s happy about it.
"We’ve really been cut enough already, enough’s enough," says UNO President Peter Fos. He addressed the Governor’s executive budget Friday afternoon. He says UNO may need to raise as much as $6 million next year to close the gap left by cuts, and that raising tuition might be the solution.
"We’d hate to shift the burden to the students, but this year only 28 percent of a $102 million budget is coming from the state. So someone else has to pay the money, which is the customer, the student. Believe me, this is the last thing we want to do, but I’m out of options of who to get money from."
The exact amount cut from UNOs budget will be announced Monday, March 2.