GSC reducing budget $3.3M, eliminating 44 jobs

ATLANTA - Gainesville State College (GSC) is reducing its budget by $3.3 million and cutting its payroll by 44 through layoffs/positions eliminated.

The moves by GSC was included in an announcement Monday from the University System of Georgia (USG) Monday, detailing how it and it's 35 colleges and USG universities would manage an additional $300 million in reductions to state appropriations in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2011 budget.

The request for the additional cuts come last Wednesday from the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittees.

North Georgia College & State University (NGCSU) in Dahlonega is reducing its budget $4.1 million and cutting 60 positions and Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) will shave $2.56 million from its spending plan and eliminate 32 positions through layoffs/positions eliminated.

Among other things, the cuts at GSC mean 6,000 students will have reduced access to courses; at NGCSU, 20 percent of of courses/sections will be eliminated; and at GGC, enrollment will be capped at 3,000, affecting about 2,000.

For more on what each of these institutions plan to do to meet their budget reductions, see the link below, where you can also find out what the larger institutions such as the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech are planning.

UGA, for instance, is reducing the incoming student body by 1,500 (including 500 fewer freshmen and 1,000 transfers) and Georgia Tech will decrease admissions by 20 percent.

USG officials say the plan could result in 4,000 layoffs and dozens of program eliminations statewide.

The plan also calls for closing satellite campuses, elimination of certain majors, and shorter hours at libraries and student centers as well as the lower caps on enrollment among the various schools.

State lawmakers are searching for roughly $1 billion in savings to avoid a projected shortfall in next year's budget. Last week, they ordered the system to compile a list by Friday of the cuts it would make.

Among the degree programs cut at certain schools would be nursing and dental hygiene, which are more expensive to teach but are also necessary to filling employment shortages.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)