Budget cuts look grim for UNC

The News & Observer
April 8, 2011
BY ERIC FERRERI - Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL -- The UNC system would lose 3,200 positions and 9,000 course sections if dealt a 15 percent budget cut next year, officials said Thursday.... As speculation about the budget continues to swirl, UNC system officials are trying to illustrate as specifically as possible the damage that could be done to public higher education. Some projections have put the cuts as high as 30 percent, though legislative leaders say the more likely cut will be about 15 percent. ...

These and other examples aren't hyperbolic or exaggerated, said Holden Thorp, chancellor at UNC-CH. On his campus, a 15 percent cut would lead to more than 200 layoffs, he said. And students would suffer significantly through the loss of instructors, class sections and other resources. "It really is ugly," Thorp said. "You're talking about qualitative changes to education."  Click here to read more.