A proposed 9 percent tuition increase will not be enough to prevent cuts to higher education, an OU official said.

Despite the proposed tuition increase and $12 million in new funds approved by the state Legislature in the General Appropriations Bill earlier this month, OU still faces a $5 million budget shortfall, OU President David Boren said.

"To be prudent and responsible, we must make contingency plans to deal with this possible shortfall while we continue to work very hard at the state Capitol to get more funds for the university's needs," Boren said. "Our contingency plans will attempt to minimize the impact of any possible cuts on our educational and academic mission."

Boren requested early in the semester that all departments look for ways to become more fiscally responsible, but he said because of the legislative decisions to date, OU must try to save money in any way possible without cutting academic programs.

"I want to emphasize that no final decisions have yet been made about the university budget," he said. "We cannot make any final decisions until the legislative session is over, and we know the final amount of state funds which we will be receiving."

The Legislature could still allocate more funds to higher education through reconciliation bills and Rainy Day funds, but Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, said partisan politics could block Rainy Day Fund allocations.

"President (Boren) should plan accordingly," Hobson said.

Hobson said it is too hard to tell whether OU will benefit from Rainy Day funds, but the decision will be made by the end of the legislative session.

"My position is that we should allocate $24 million from the Rainy Day Fund for higher education," Hobson said. "That would make our allocation dollar for dollar with the proposed tuition increase. There is no reason we can't do that amount, and actually I think we can do more than that amount and should."

Jabar Shumate, OU press secretary, said although no definite plan has been set, departments will look for ways to save money while minimizing the effect on students.

"We've got to look at all case scenarios in case we are faced with cuts," he said. "If we do have to make some hard decisions, we have to know where we are going to do them."
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