WIth vast budget cuts and the largest entering freshman class in the University's history, various parts of the University are scaling back their budgets and services.

At the same time, all are looking for ways to enhance their services cost effectively so that most of the fiscal issues they face are not felt by students.

UIUC Libraries

Bob Burger, associate University Librarian for services, said the University library system has always taken pride in its accessibility, but the system has been hit hard by cuts.

"We have had to cut hours, especially in the smaller departmental libraries, and that has hurt us most," he said.

The year's library budget has been reduced by about $1,152,000 and 10 percent of the staff has been cut either through retirement or attrition, according to a frequently asked questions list on the library's Web site.

The list also said that the Undergraduate Library printing services desk would be unavailable, and slower service should be expected because of staff cuts.

Burger said the library system cancelled more than 400 journal titles, worth almost $800,000. But the library will still provide electronic access to these titles, he said. Burger explained that many libraries across the nation were switching from journals to electronic access because of clinched budgets.

"Someone has to be the print repository for the actual print versions of these journals," he said.

But since the University has the third largest library in the nation after Harvard and Yale, they are often asked to be a repository. This has not been easy because of the library's space problems.

"We have books on the floor in the main stacks," Burger said.

Burger said the library stacks are already at 102 percent capacity, and must spend money on a new high-density shelving space to accommodate the books.

Funding from the Provost's office will help keep the frequently used libraries, such as the Undergraduate, Law, and the ACES library, open until 3 a.m., midnight, and 10 p.m. respectively.

Campus Recreation

Tony Clements, director of Campus Recreation, which is in charge of both IMPE and the Campus Recreation Center East (CRCE), said while the majority of funding for campus recreation comes from student fees, about 2 percent is from state dollars. He said the division has been in the process of re-evaluating how they spend student dollars for some time. The division has already cut the free towel service it provided to users of IMPE, but Clement said this was the biggest change students would face.

"The philosophical issue is whether we should spend money on 700,000 to 800,000 towels being cleaned per year, or whether we should reallocate that money," Clements said. "I think a student would prefer to play soccer on a field for two hours than getting a free towel they can bring from home."

With the large freshman class, Clements said the most difficult change for students would be longer, more frustrating lines, especially with the closing of CRCE for renovations.

"As big as the University is, its infrastructure is taxed when you bring in that many students," Clements said.

Despite cuts and the increased number of users this year, Clements justified renovations at CRCE because the new facilities will more easily and efficiently serve students without necessarily hiring more staff.

Clements said the renovations were necessary because space has become a serious issue at IMPE.

"We need over 40,000 square feet of strength and fitness equipment," he said. "We have 13,000."

Clements also said the department is looking for longer-lasting equipment that costs less to repair.

CITES

Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services roughly broke even despite budget slashes this year, according to Peter Siegel, CITES chief information officer.

Students face fewer computer lab hours, the phasing out of cluster e-mail access and newsgroups except for courses that absolutely require them, consolidation of educational technologies courses such as WebCT and Blackboard, the phasing out of the statistical computer system, and the removal of Apple computers in the Union lab.

Students will also have new services such as NetFiles where students will be able to share files more easily, and the Express e-mail service introduced last fall.

Siegel also said the computer network security was being upgraded to prevent network failures.

Other changes in consideration are providing dial-up Internet service for students unable to pay for high-speed Internet service and installing wireless technologies around campus.

Siegel also said CITES is considering building a portal that would consolidate all the University-based Web sites.

"It would include more customizing — students will be able to see what they want to see." he said. "But we're going to do this very very carefully."

Siegel said while there were certainly more users than ever before on the campus network, the system was built to handle it, so he did not foresee any problems there.

"We have the right technologies in place to keep up," Siegel said.

Financial Aid

Although financial aid was not as affected as much as other services at the University, Robert Anderson, the University's associate director of financial aid noted some issues that decreasing state dollars have caused.

Anderson said that aside from minimal changes for undergraduates, fifth-year students would not be covered by financial aid their final semester. He also said that as in the past, middle income families might not get as much aid.

"We have enough funding for the neediest students," Anderson said.

Anderson explained that while there was certainly a little less money this year, they were able look into other sources of funding besides state money such as federal funds, foundation money, alumni gifts and the sale of University license plates for cars.

"Luckily enough, in spite of the increased numbers of students, most students applied for aid on time, which meant we could tap into other sources for money," he said.

He did note that more students would have to look for loans.

"We tried our very best to spread the money out evenly, but on average, students will have to look for more loans."

Overall, Anderson felt that the office was doing as well as they were last year at the same time.

"(The cuts) aren't so much that we can't manage for a short period of time," he said.