Spring registration booklets have already been printed, but the classes inside may not be offered.
“Very reluctantly, we’ll have to say classes are not available,” said Arthur Washington, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
State universities had to cut over $83 million from their budgets due to a shortage in Florida’s revenue.
Florida legislators held special sessions to decide how to deal with this shortage.
Bill Edmonds is the director of public information at the Florida Board of Education’s division of colleges and universities.
Edmonds said the goal of special sessions was to make sure universities had maximum flexibility in deciding what they could sacrifice.
“The last thing we wanted was to fire professors or kill classes,” he said. “FAMU will be able to decide what they can do away with and preserve.”
The state cut over $4 million from the university’s budget.
Adminstrators expressed uncertainties about the effects the budget cut will have on FAMU.
Gladys Lang, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, will decide exactly what happens to classes, but was not available for comment.
However, other campus administrators have given an indication of what spring 2002 will look like if these cuts are retroactive.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, President Frederick S. Humphries said that, “classes will enlarge and adjuncts will decrease.”
Adjuncts are part-time professors with a limited number of courses in a specialized field.
Richard Wilson, director of the graduate program in the School of Business and Industry said that they have already made the adjustment.
They decided to use fewer adjuncts in fall 2001 so they will not have to make an adjustment for spring 2002.
But other academic areas will have to adjust. Washington said the College of Arts and Sciences uses the largest number of adjuncts on campus, but their adjunct professors will not be employed this spring.
He plans to eliminate classes instead of increasing the sizes because there will be fewer adjuncts and teaching assistants to assist with larger classes.
For more information about cuts being made by the Florida Board of Education visit http://www.flboe.org.