Chancellor Jan Simek announced on Oct. 9 that UT-Knoxville's campus will be accountable for $6 million of the $17 million that are to be cut from the University of Tennessee system for the 2009 fiscal year.

Students and faculty alike worry that the budget cuts will affect financial aid opportunities, scholarships, study abroad ventures, the amount of sections for courses, and even putting low-budget programs that the university funds in complete jeopardy. The chancellor's Web site recently released a statement saying that the budget cuts were to include:

• Reduction or elimination of travel and field opportunities for students
• Reduction in the ability to modernize teaching and classrooms through the use of technology
• Cancellation of courses, particularly at the upper division level, which will affect students' access to courses and their ability to graduate
• Reduction in faculty research support and additional reductions in the number of faculty lines, which will require that we hire lecturers to replace tenure-track faculty positions
• Reduction in funding for admissions, which will impact processing of student applications
• Reduction of maintenance funding, which will further delay overdue maintenance on many buildings

These are just some changes that are going to need to be made.

Simek announced on Nov. 20 that the annual budget hearings for the university, which usually take place in March, would begin in December to try and counteract and plan for the pending school year that will begin with a significant lack of funds.

Simek also noted in the November announcement that despite the fact that the state's budget should be announced by January, it may be as late as March until the university receives specific information on the 2009-2010 budget.