Budget for College of Forestry will see 85 percent cutback
Reduced demand for lumber means no extra revenue for OSU College of Forestry
Makenna Bishop
Issue date: 2/13/09 Section: News
Bond said she is very worried about how this change will affect the long-term management and use of the college forests.
"I am also worried about how this will affect education and outreach programs that involve a much broader community," Bond said.
According to Bond, up until now the College of Forestry has been able to make reductions in spending that were not very sudden. They were able to make up the shortfall between income and expenses, which reached as much as $2 million each year, from the income from the sale of lumber growing in the college's forests.
The College of Forestry has been downsizing for the past few years, condensing to three departments instead of four.
"The fact that the College of Forestry is facing serious budget problems comes as no surprise to anyone," Bond said. "But the extremely rapid changes that have occurred very recently are a surprise to me and, I think, most other people."
The sources of revenue to the college are continuing to fall more rapidly than expected. The deficit is no longer reconcilable by selling timber from the college forests.
"Over time, there is no doubt that this will impact our research as well as our teaching," Bond said. "We're just not hiring very many new, younger faculty, and we're losing the breadth of disciplines."
While other colleges and departments are facing similar financial problems, the College of Forestry has been able to weather the storm due to the incoming revenue from the college forests.
"But then, a 'perfect storm' of financial problems occurred all at once, causing a very sudden crisis for the College of Forestry on top of the other, long-term financial problems."
Salwasser said there has been quite a bit of disappointment among the staff and faculty. The log markets have been down since August, but the housing demand was expected to continue.
"We anticipated a problem for maybe a year, but suddenly it looks like it will be three or four years before a turn around," Salwasser said.
"I am also worried about how this will affect education and outreach programs that involve a much broader community," Bond said.
According to Bond, up until now the College of Forestry has been able to make reductions in spending that were not very sudden. They were able to make up the shortfall between income and expenses, which reached as much as $2 million each year, from the income from the sale of lumber growing in the college's forests.
The College of Forestry has been downsizing for the past few years, condensing to three departments instead of four.
"The fact that the College of Forestry is facing serious budget problems comes as no surprise to anyone," Bond said. "But the extremely rapid changes that have occurred very recently are a surprise to me and, I think, most other people."
The sources of revenue to the college are continuing to fall more rapidly than expected. The deficit is no longer reconcilable by selling timber from the college forests.
"Over time, there is no doubt that this will impact our research as well as our teaching," Bond said. "We're just not hiring very many new, younger faculty, and we're losing the breadth of disciplines."
While other colleges and departments are facing similar financial problems, the College of Forestry has been able to weather the storm due to the incoming revenue from the college forests.
"But then, a 'perfect storm' of financial problems occurred all at once, causing a very sudden crisis for the College of Forestry on top of the other, long-term financial problems."
Salwasser said there has been quite a bit of disappointment among the staff and faculty. The log markets have been down since August, but the housing demand was expected to continue.
"We anticipated a problem for maybe a year, but suddenly it looks like it will be three or four years before a turn around," Salwasser said.
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