UA officials plan to slash funding to performance arts programming, shutter on-campus museums and suspend outreach programs across the state in an effort to absorb about $57 million in state budget cuts, President Robert Shelton announced this afternoon.
The cuts — which affect UApresents, the Flandrau Science Center and Arizona State Museum — are part of an effort to cut expenses after lawmakers approved a budget that cut almost $142 million from all three state universities.
Shelton also announced that beginning in July all faculty members and staffers whose salaries are paid for by state or local money will be furloughed for five days in an attempt to stave off even larger budget cuts in 2010.
“As we said at the beginning, this budget crisis must be addressed as a two-year challenge, and there is simply no way to bring about the needed reductions without a furlough in the 2009/10 year,” Shelton wrote in his memo.
