Efforts to reduce state funding cuts to Penn State’s cooperative extension and agriculture research programs failed, leaving the College of Agricultural Sciences the job of deciding how to cut expenses by $10.5 million.
Lawmakers this year separated funding for the programs from Penn State’s appropriation — the money will now be funded through the state Department of Agriculture — but that change did not reduce the size of the cut, as college officials and state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, had hoped.
The programs will receive $44.7 million in 2011-12, compared with $55.2 million in 2010- 11, a reduction of about 19 percent. Penn State’s budget was cut by the same percentage.
Dean Bruce McPheron said the college, which has already reduced its expenses by $8 million during the past two years, had been hoping for a 10 percent cut in its state appropriation. It will likely have to make further cuts “in people, unfortunately.
“We’re still letting the dust settle and working diligently to identify the different options open to us,” McPheron said. But he said it will likely mean eliminating 150 positions at University Park and county operations across the state. Penn State is not alone.
As university budgets take a beating across the country, agricultural schools and extension programs are feeling the impact. At a time when farmers are being asked to grow more for food and fuel to meet soaring world demand, experts warn against eroding the country’s commitment to agricultural research.
“We’re mortgaging our future with some of these cuts,” said Ian Maw, vice president for food, agriculture and natural resources at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.
Most state budgets are experiencing “real trauma,” Maw said. Often, he said, schools are forced to cut into the “bone and marrow” of their capacity to serve agriculture.
Beverly Durgan, dean of the University of Minnesota extension program, said cuts to agricultural colleges have far-reaching national impacts.
“As the funding slowly erodes away, the quality and the quantity of research and extension we can do at the land-grant universities is decreasing. People may not see the impact tomorrow but they will see long-term that not investing now means we’ll have more problems in the future,” said Durgan, chairwoman of an APLU agricultural committee.
Congress established land-grant universities in the 1800s to teach agriculture, science and engineering. It expanded their mission to include agricultural experiment stations to conduct research, and cooperative extension programs to translate research into practical help for farmers and the larger public.
Much federal support for these programs flows through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, which took a 9 percent cut this fiscal year.
Extension supporters largely beat back a House-passed $30 million cut in a key category of federal matching funds within NIFA that supports salaries for a wide range of extension services, including county agents and 4-H. But a fiscal 2012 funding bill that passed the GOP-controlled House last month cuts $35 million in those extension funds from the current level of $294 million. The Democratic-controlled Senate has yet to act.
The cuts to Penn State’s programs are smaller than the 50 percent reduction Gov. Tom Corbett had originally proposed as he looked for ways to close a multibillion dollar budget deficit. The adopted budget reduces state spending overall to 3 percent, and separates agricultural research and cooperative extension from Penn State’s appropriation, moving it to the general funds appropriation under the state Department of Agriculture. Penn State will continue to operate the programs.
McPheron said it was premature to say exactly where the cuts will be made. He said the college does not anticipate losing faculty through the process, but “we do think we’ve got some major cuts to make.”
They will likely be achieved through a mix of early retirement and layoffs. The college offered early retirement to some employees in April. Mc- Pheron said that period for employees to decide whether to accept the early retirement package is coming to an end.
At the University of Georgia, Scott Angle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, recently decided to lay off 18 workers and sell a farm. He said there was nothing else left to cut.
“We have tried as best we can — and to a fairly successful extent — to protect the learning experience for our students on campus but this does mean our research and extension capabilities have been compromised,” Angle said.
This report was compiled by CDT staff writer Anne Danahy and includes information from Associated Press reporter Steve Karnowski.
