Editor’s Note: Part of an ongoing series about Iowa State’s response to state budget problems.

Uncertainty over the possibility of more budget cuts from the state legislature have left some in the College of Agriculture unsure of what the future holds.

“We haven’t been told what those cuts are yet. It is hard to say [how we will be affected]. We have to wait and see,” said Del Koch, director of budget and finance for the College of Agriculture.

Wendy Wintersteen, senior associate dean of the cooperative extension service and chairwoman of the college’s budget committee, said the cuts will effect all three of the college’s budgets: the general, experiment and extension funds.

Wintersteen said, however, the college has no way of knowing how large those cuts will be.

“We have no information to go on except what has happened the last three years,” she said.

Echoing the sentiments of other departments, Wintersteen said the number one priority for the college is always undergraduate student education.

“We will do everything to not affect the quality of education,” Wintersteen said.

She listed protecting faculty as the next priority. Wintersteen said the College of Agriculture gets very little assistance from tuition money and will have to rely heavily on grants next year in order to protect the faculty from the fallout of the cuts.

Jeni Matthiesen, junior in horticulture, said she has noticed her classes have gotten much larger since she began at Iowa State. Matthiesen said she thinks the class enlargement is occurring because classes are being offered less frequently, with some being cut down to just fall or just spring.

“It is getting a lot harder to get [into] classes, too,” Matthiesen said.

She said underclassmen with a low number of credits are finding it difficult to get in most of the classes they will need to graduate in four years.

“By the time they get to register, they have to redo their class plans,” Matthiesen said.

She said she believes the budget cuts are the cause of class strain.

Gary Steinke, director of government relations for the university, said the entire university is waiting for the Legislature to finalize what is going to be around a $13 million, or 4.6 percent, cut in Iowa State’s budget.

Steinke said, “They are giving us no money for salaries [for fiscal year 2004], which will be a $9 or $10 million problem.”

He said the salary money for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2003, will be a continuation of salaries from the previous year’s one-time, $7 million expenditure.

Steinke said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy will decide the allocation of cuts for each college as soon as the legislature finalizes the budget.

While no plans are final, Steinke said, “We are preparing for the worst — the president always does that. We just hope it won’t be that bad.”