WSU budget plan and agriculture

Washington Ag Today May 4, 2009 In its budget plan revealed Friday designed to meet a 10.3 percent reduction in state funding for the next biennium, Washington State University proposes cutting 8% from the Agricultural Research Center's permanent funding level. That includes closing the International Marketing Program for Agricultural Commodities and Trade, which was created in 1985. A five percent spending reduction is proposed for the College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. That will include the elimination of the Department of Community and Rural Sociology. WSU Extension is proposed for a 20% spending reduction with much of the savings coming from closing all 9 Learning Centers around the state. WSU president Elson Floyd has said agriculture is a priority for the land grant university, and during a teleconference Friday we asked him how this budget proposal will impact that mission. Floyd: "We have been keenly committed to renewing our obligation toward agriculture. This does not dissuade us one bit. We have a great world class array of programs including what we do in agriculture and related research. We will continue to make those investments and continue to proceed in that precise way." In all, across WSU and its four campuses 370 jobs will be cut of which 206 are currently filled and will be eliminated. WSU is taking public comment on its budget proposal. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. A complete unit-by-unit breakdown of the budget reductions is available at http://suggest.french.wsu.edu/main/BudgetPlan.aspx .