Just as the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education approved an additional $13.3 million in state-mandated cuts, they were told at their regularly scheduled meeting to brace themselves for another 10 to 20 percent cut.

The regents' reaction was somewhat grim. After reducing the allocations for higher education from $851.3 million to $801.8 million, such a large cut that could hit in July is not promising. The memo about the possibility of these new cuts was released by the Office of State Finance on Wednesday afternoon. This was the first time the regents and the public had heard this.

"This is just an enormous kind of reduction for next fiscal year," Maryanne Maletz, vice chancellor for budget and finance, told the regents.

She compared the 10 percent cut, which would be about $80 million, to the amount of state allocations for the OU Health Sciences Center.

A 15 percent cut would be equivalent to the state allocations for the entire OU Norman campus at about $120 million, Maletz told the regents.

The cut -- approved Thursday -- was the result of lower-than-expected tax revenues through October.

"Given the state's fiscal situation, state agencies across the board have been forced to make this additional cut to their budgets," Chancellor Hans Brisch said. "We are doing everything that we can to minimize the impact on students, however."

Despite the board's efforts, he said many state institutions have had to begin making further cuts into key areas that do directly impact students.

The regents did not cut allocations for financial aid and scholarships just as they did during September's cuts.

This was Brisch's last regents meeting as chancellor. He spoke to the regents about the successes he has seen in his 15-year tenure and the problems that still plague the future.

He said the regents have enhanced programs and competitiveness and have lived up to their "student success" dream, listing a host of statistics that have been improved during his time as chancellor.

"Our best and brightest are no longer leaving the state to go to college elsewhere," Brisch said.

He emphasized to the regents that they need to increase the number of college graduates in the state to meet or exceed the national average.

He said the regents had done well funding increases the past 15 years, but that tuition rates and revenue are too low.

"Even though we have increased tuition significantly, our rates are still a bargain -- that translates into our institutions are underfunded," he said.

Brisch said the regents' goal is to have students pay one-third of the cost of their education.

Major gains have also been made in attracting competitive research and private endowment funds, but Oklahoma still rates below surrounding states.

He personally thanked OU President David L. Boren for his work in this area and said that incoming Oklahoma State University President David Schmidly has said that he will not take second place in Oklahoma in this area.

Finally, Brisch challenged the regents to make the right decisions for Oklahoma despite criticism from presidents and legislators.
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