The latest round of budget cuts have not only been felt around campus, but have also been heard on the airwaves across the state.

Last November, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy announced another $8.3 million needed to be trimmed from the budget.

The WOI Radio Group, which consists in Ames of 640 AM and 90.1 FM, will face another 9 percent in budget shortfalls. These cuts translate into a loss of approximately $239,000 from its operating funds.

Mark Chidister, assistant to the president for budget planning and analysis, says the cuts to WOI were made after many careful studies on how they would affect the university as a whole.

“When the governor announced the latest round of budget cuts, we looked first at how they would impact the academic programs,” Chidister says. “Our first priority was to dampen any impact to the academic units and degree programs.

“WOI is not the only non-academic program which saw decreased funding. Both the athletic department and the Iowa State Center also have to deal with decreased appropriations from the university.”

However, Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science and host of WOI’s “Dr. Politics,” says the radio station is an important part of Iowa State’s mission as an educational institution.

“When you listen to a public radio station like WOI, you get news and information you can’t get anywhere else,” Schmidt says. “I like to think that when people listen to us regularly, it’s like they are getting a Ph.D. in not only political science, but in a number of subjects.”

Schmidt says in the 15 years he has been doing his show, he has heard many positive comments from listeners about WOI’s programming.

“Many of them say they have learned things that they would never have gotten from any other media outlet,” Schmidt says. “That alone makes WOI a very important part of the university’s mission. After all, we exist as an institution that educates people, don’t we?”

Donald Wirth, the stations’ associate general manager, says the majority of the cuts will occur behind the scenes and will not affect programming. The stations’ listeners should not notice any difference in the quality or quantity of programming.

“Our biggest expenditure reduction at the station is that we have chosen to defer hiring a news director. At this time, we don’t see a need to fill the position,” Wirth says.

“On July 1 of this year, we will meet and re-evaluate our decision. Until then, however, it will be business as usual at WOI.”