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Dicrector's Perspective: Budget Cuts Create Setback

By Dr. Jim Cato
Senior Associate Dean and Director of SNRE

Since SNRE was reorganized into its current structure in mid-2003, we have made significant progress in serving our students and providing educational programs to audiences from the local level to internationally. My comments in the Spring 2008 Source noted that our just-completed seven-year Board of Governor’s self-evaluation caused us to conclude that we were on track to become a top-ranked interdisciplinary natural resource and environmental academic, research and outreach/Extension program in the U.S. A derailment has occurred. The significant budget cuts in state appropriations that UF has taken during FY 2008-08 and for the beginning of FY 2008-09 have resulted in the loss of SNRE’s operating funds for research and outreach/Extension activities.

This means that we will continue some activities, transfer some activities to other academic units and eliminate some activities. I will continue to be involved with SNRE. Nancy Peterson (Associate Director for Research and Outreach/Extension) will begin working with the the School of Forest Resources and Conservation and the Conserved Forest Ecosystems: Outreach and Research cooperative program. Candy Kaswinkel (office manager and winner of the UF/IFAS Superior Accomplishment Award) will assist the Natural Resources Leadership Institute (NRLI) in the Food and Resource Economics Department and will support SNRE on a part-time basis for the coming year. Steve Humphrey and his staff will continue to serve our students through the Academic Programs Office.

We will of course continue our graduate Interdisciplinary Ecology degree (MS and PhD) programs and the undergraduate Environmental Science degree. We had record enrollments (again) for the fall 2007 graduate programs (145). However, the academic programs are not immune to budget cuts and we will suffer some reductions here, but more in line with university-wide reductions. We do know that we will have a reduced budget and fewer graduate students for fall 2008 than this year for the first time since these graduate degree programs first admitted students in 1999-2000. Our undergraduate enrollment has grown the last three years to 112 this past fall. However, UF is reducing undergraduate enrollment over the next few years, so this will likely affect our undergraduate enrollment as well.

The Natural Resources Leadership Institute will continue but will be transferred to another IFAS academic unit. The Natural Areas Training Academy (NATA) has been a partnership program of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), SNRE and IFAS Extension. TNC has decided to terminate financial support for NATA after September, 2008. Unless another UF academic unit can assume  responsibility for the program and continue it as a UF program, NATA will terminate. The Program for Resource Efficient Communities (PREC) will continue under IFAS Extension as always. We are also recommending that UF continue participation in the three Cooperative Ecosystem Study Units; South-Atlantic/Piedmont; Gulf of Mexico; South Florida/Caribbean) and transfer responsibility for these programs to another academic unit.

We will terminate the highly successful mini-grant programs that allowed faculty to conduct preliminary research that led to follow-on extramural funding. We will also terminate administrative support for the faculty work groups that have been created [People and Land Use Strategies (PLUS); Climate Change; Biogeochemistry; Economic non-market values (in discussion phase)]. These faculty groups may choose to continue under self-organization. We will no longer administer grants including interdisciplinary grants through SNRE. We will terminate the faculty grants searchable database (unless another academic unit can be convinced to take this over). We will also reorganize our website to focus primarily on academic programs.

I have been involved with academic institutions in Florida for over 30 years. This is the third time during these three decades that the state has gone through an economic downturn and budget cutbacks. But, this is the worst by far. When economic recovery does occur, it is critical that the state invest an even higher percentage of its resources in education than it has in the past. Our future depends on it! I thank all of you who have participated in SNRE programs including our affiliate faculty and students. The advice and support you have provided have enabled us to accomplish our goals to date. Our desire is to keep you involved and to continue to improve the quality of our programs as we downsize and restructure to move forward.