More than $100 million in state funding could be cut from public universities across the state.
Across the state.
The cuts were annouced by state leaders last week.
As news 18's balint szalavari reports, local universities were prepared for such cuts.
Indiana's seven public universities could see funding cuts totaling 103 million dollars after state leaders saw drops in tax collections amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Hawkins: "we do understand why they are taking some of these measures."
Under plans annouced last week, each university's 2020-2021 funding would be reduced by seven percent.
This includes local institutions like purdue and ivy tech.
Ruhl: "purdue's share of that is roughly 25 million dollars across the system with around 19 million dollars of that hitting west lafayette.".
According to treasurer chris ruhl, the cuts do not come as a surprise.
He says purdue university was prepared for such a reduction.
Ruhl: "we built a budget that included the reduction and we're ultimately going to manage our spending in a way that'll take account for the lost revenue."
This includes halting certain projects across campus.
But ruhl says the new budget still includes a tuition freeze.
Ruhl: "student affordability is still a top priority for the university, especially in this environment right?
It's really an important message to students that we're looking out for them."
Other colleges like ivy tech were also expecting cuts.
The seven percent reduction would remove 17 million dollars from ivy tech's 2021 fiscal year reserve.
Senior vice president for business affairs matt hawkins says the community college made changes such as salary freezes to create reserves in funds.
Hawkins: "we knew the state wouldn't be able to give out money that it didn't have and we knew they would have revenue shortfalls.
So we were trying to do our part early on in our budget development."
In tippecanoe county, balint szalavari, news 18.
Funding received through the federal cares act will help offset some of the cuts.
The relief package distributed nearly 82 million dollars to colleges statewide with at least 50 percent being required to provide direct aid to students.
K-12 schools will not take any budget cuts following
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