Officials from Wichita State University held a town hall meeting Friday on the school's budget. KMUW's Abigail Beckman reports the discussion was held as a way to "prepare for all possible outcomes given the state budget environment."
No budgeting decisions were made or announced at the meeting.
Instead, Wichita State President Dr. John Bardo said his goal was to to gather ideas from faculty and staff about where savings can be found. Bardo said the university has floated the idea of 6 percent across-the-board cut.
"There's no magic in that," he said. "Six percent is our best guess as to where an allotment and cut would be if we were going to get one."
Suggestions from staff in attendance at the town hall included adding two-year associative science degrees and creating a historic district on campus that would generate grant money.
State revenue estimates for fiscal year 2017 are about $346 million less than what the state based it's adopted budget on for the year. Representatives from WSU say that makes the risk of a state cut to higher education funding "significant."
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