Tempers flare in first budget forum

The Louisville Cardinal By Kyeland Jackson —Interim President Greg Postel faced hard questions in a March 3 budget forum.The first of two forums, students, faculty, staff and constituents packed U of L’s Floyd theater Monday to discuss impending changes to university spending. Tempers flared as discussion turned towards budget cuts for a $48 million budget shortfall.“We have nothing to do with the screw up of the central administration,” Communication Department Chair Al Futrell said. “If we cut arts and sciences … we’re going to cut everything about this university that’s important.”Futrell and Pan-African Studies Chair Ricky Jones asked Postel reevaluate budget allocations for distanced education. Distanced education allows departments to teach classes online, often employing professors across the nation to teach U of L classes.Futrell said around 43 percent of money earned from distanced education goes to the communication department. The rest is allocated to Arts and Sciences Dean Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, the library, Delphi center and provost’s office. Extra money from that budget is sent to the central administration, who sends the money back months later. Futrell said the central administration returned less than the full amount of that carryover for years, and they returned none of it to the departments this year.“We got screwed last year. Well, they’re setting us up to do the same thing this year,” Futrell said in an interview after the forum. “We put this carpet in, we painted these walls, we bought these chairs. We do all this stuff mostly that’s supposed to be done by central administration, but they don’t do that so we do it. But, we do it with distanced education money.”Postel said the central administration’s money was spent beforehand, leaving no carryover to return to departments.“You should have what you earned,” Postel said, referring to teaching revenues.The $48 million deficit revelation sent ...


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