Midterm budget cuts for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are unlikely, predicted ISU President Gregory Geoffroy at the LAS open forum earlier this month, but the college has already been struggling for the last several years.

“It’s painful,” said Michael Whiteford, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Having no midterm cuts is obviously great, but over the years, nothing has been spared. A budget cut is always a hard thing, but it’s painful because there hasn’t been a year without a budget cut since 2001. It’s the accumulation of the cuts that have taken their toll.”

The college’s budget cuts over the years have resulted in larger classes, somewhat fewer class choices, and the struggle for LAS to grant tenure for professors.

One thing that makes resources seem so limited is the growing expectations of students.

“With tuition in public universities increasing, students expect more of a bang for their many bucks,” Whiteford said.

“The problem is that tuition is increasing simply because support from the state has been going down over the years. There just aren’t that many other options,” he said.

“With the budget that we have now, the question must be brought up of whether we provide students with a basic college education or whether we have the resources to prepare students for the real world, which is changing at a much faster rate than ever before. It’s been a question that we still haven’t found a real answer for yet.”

Another problem is the cost of new technology, which is constantly improving.

“These days, equipment has to be state-of-the-art,” Whiteford said. “Unfortunately, most of the technology that students require comes out with newer versions or updates faster than we can acquire the money to keep up with it.”

While the low budget is cause for concern, Whiteford said, not everything is as bad as it could be.

“With modern technology, it’s far easier and faster for us to respond to student needs,” Whiteford said. “Keeping up with what the students need means that we can have money flow in the right direction.”

This semester, the college has commissioned the Blue Sky Taskforce, consisting of faculty from nearly every department in the college, to brainstorm ideas on how to reorganize the college to make it more financially efficient.

“While nothing they say will be definite, it will be helpful to look at new ideas to answer the question of how to provide as high a quality of an education as we can while not going financially overboard,” Whiteford said. “I’m looking forward to hearing what the committee’s answers will be.”

The Blue Sky Taskforce’s final report is due Wednesday.