11/25/24 - 156 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/54ukts8z
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Budget: Cuts To Penn State Would Eliminate 440 Positions In Cooperative Extension
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At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week on the 50 percent cut in some higher education line items proposed by Gov. Corbett, the Committee heard testimony on how the cuts to Penn State University would result in significant cutbacks in agricultural research and the Cooperative Extension, which has been particularly valuable in educating the public on issues related to Marcellus Shale natural gas development Penn State President Graham Spanier said agricultural research and Cooperative Extension would be particularly hard-hit by a $29 million cut to their appropriation. In agriculture alone, he said, the workforce would be cut by about 440 positions, or 50 percent. That would surely mean a severe cutback in the breadth of services currently provided by Cooperative Extension to the state's agriculture industry.
"These are not made-up numbers, these are not numbers designed to shock people; these are actual projections. We've had to get very specific in the last few days because if this budget goes forward as it is now on July 1, we have to operate with a balanced budget just as the Commonwealth does, and the numbers are very dramatic. Agriculture is just in one of the colleges of our University. There are ripple effects that would go out across the entire institution with appropriation reductions of the sort that we are looking at."
"We are prepared to do our fair share. We have never said differently. But I don't believe that a decrease in our appropriation at this level would constitute anyone's idea of what is a fair share for some of the state's greatest resources -- our public institutions of higher education."
Click Here to watch a video of this budget hearing on the Senate Republican Appropriations Committee website.
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3/21/2011 |
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