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A&M, UT share budget ideas

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Eagle photo/Dave McDermand

Texas A&M interim Provost Karan Watson (left) listens along with University of Texas president Bill Powers (third from left) and University of Texas at Austin provost Steve Leslie (far right) as A&M President R. Bowen Loftin speaks to a group of A&M and UT staff and faculty officials at the Clayton Williams Former Student Center on Monday. Budget woes dominated discussion.

Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin are archrivals, but faculty members of the Lone Star State's two research giants united Monday.

The UT faculty council -- the Texas A&M Faculty Senate's counterpart -- and top Longhorn officials were in Aggieland for the schools' annual joint faculty meeting.

"We are more alike than unalike," said A&M President R. Bowen Loftin, who joined Interim Provost Karan Watson, along with UT President William Powers and UT Provost Steven Leslie.

Powers said the schools should present a unified front to state leaders and the public about the value they provide Texas.

"We need to bring common messages," Powers said.

Both schools are Texas' only top-tier research universities, have fall student populations hovering near 50,000 and are the flagships for their systems.

And they have even more similarities this year: Both, along with all of the state's public higher-education institutions, are bracing for a planned 5 percent state reduction.

The budget dominated the five-hour meeting in the Clayton Williams Alumni Center, attended by about 35 people.

Where to cut

The schools are preparing for roughly the same amount of cuts -- about $28 million for A&M and $29 million for UT.

Their reduction strategies have differences.

The Texas A&M athletics department has not been asked to make reductions, while UT athletics would shoulder $5 million through trademark licensing, sponsorships, revenues and cash reserves.

Partly because of that, UT academics have been protected from cuts more than at Texas A&M.

"We're blessed with our athletics program," Powers said, explaining the fiscal health of his athletics department. Texas A&M's athletics department is in the midst of paying back a $16 million loan extended under the tenure of President Robert Gates.

"Our athletics department generates more revenue than expenses," Powers said, "and so unlike probably 98 percent of college presidents across the country, it's an asset to me rather than making up a shortfall. It gives us some breathing space."

Also, UT-Austin will place the burden on fiscal year 2011 and leave fiscal year 2010 -- the current year that began Sept. 1 -- untouched. At Texas A&M, the planned cuts would be roughly split between the two years.

Working together

Meeting attendees divided into one of three breakout sessions: 10 went to the shared governance group, eight to one about athletics and 15 to a budget discussion.

All eyes in the latter group were on Leslie, the UT provost, who sported a burnt orange tie that contrasted with the maroon tablecloth.

He said Texas higher education faces serious challenges, with endowments hurt, declining general revenue and a lack of stimulus funds that helped balance 2010's budget.

"We are in a different time than higher education has ever seen before," he said.

But his last words to the group were, "The glass is half full."

The bus back to Austin left shortly after 3:30 p.m., a day without Aggie jokes or references to t.u.

"[The annual meeting] is a way to get us on the same page," said Clint Magill, last year's Faculty Senate speaker. "Whatever topic you talk about, we share a lot of problems."