Legislators in the StateHouse are wrestling with how to close the projected budget shortfalls.

If there are budget cuts to higher education, for example, would Kansas State University survive the hit?

Richard Myers, KSU President, said that during a Higher Education Budget Committee hearing he was asked ‘how would the university handle a 6% budget cut’ that would amount to nearly $11 million dollars.

“You have very few leverages you can pull, we have a lot of fixed costs – utilities, people, compensation salaries; so we could take out some of the areas that are more discretionary and most all of those are around how we take care of students in terms of tutoring, mentoring and all those types of programs,” said Myers. “That’d be devastating to the students…I don’t know what we would do.”

Officials at the University are struggling with decreased revenue due to lower than expected enrollment for this school year.

“That’s around four and half to five million dollars, revenue we were expecting and we didn’t get because enrollment was down and we haven’t fully accommodated that so if you add that $5 million to $11 million now we’re at $16 million cut this year,” said Myers.

No final action has been taken on proposed budget cuts to higher education at this time.

The Legislature is grappling with a nearly $320 million budget shortfall in the State.