Reduced spending, a hiring freeze and general tightening of the belt – that’s how Copiah-Lincoln Community College is coping with budget cuts. And that’s just in the current fiscal year. According to budget projections, the college’s Natchez and Wesson campuses could lose another $1.4 million in the next fiscal year. So the college has raised tuition, effective this fall, and is asking counties in its district to raise their tax millage appropriation to the college.

Will it be enough?

Natchez campus dean Dr. Ronnie Nettles hopes so.

&uot;We’re committed to offering quality, affordable higher education,&uot; Nettles said.

Co-Lin isn’t the only school facing more budget cuts, and colleges and universities aren’t the only ones tightening the belts.

Tax collections are down from previous projections, forcing the state to cut back in nearly all agencies. Last fall Gov. Ronnie Musgrove ordered budget cuts for all government entities, excluding schools and public health.

But Musgrove said Tuesday that new cuts could include higher education.

Such cuts could force Alcorn State University to cut faculty positions, Alcorn President Dr. Clinton Bristow said.

&uot;If those cuts come this year and continue into next year, we will look for internal efficiency – reorganizing, reallocating,&uot; Bristow said. &uot;After that, that leaves no choice but to look at the big-dollar item,&uot; he said, referring to faculty positions.

If the university wanted to raise tuition, as Co-Lin has done, the university’s board would have to make the decision.

But as president, Bristow has the authority to make changes in staffing.

&uot;I hope I don’t have to do it,&uot; he said, &uot;but I’ve got to start looking at all kinds of options.&uot;

Bristow doesn’t blame anything but the economic downturn that is nationwide, not just statewide.

Like Nettles, Bristow said he hopes the budget cuts will not affect students’ learning.

&uot;We do not want to do anything to disrupt the learning environment,&uot; he said.

Co-Lin began this fiscal year with a tighter budget than the previous year’s, Nettles said. In addition to instituting a hiring freeze – for all but essential positions – the school has cut back its travel and supply budgets.

Next year, the college hopes to gain some ground with the tuition increase and with greater tax revenue from counties.

Co-Lin’s tuition increase, its first since 1993, is expected to raise about $380,000.

&uot;It’s going to make some difference,&uot; Nettles said. &uot;But it’s amazing how little difference it makes.&uot;

The college has asked counties to consider raising the tax millage they assign to the school to the maximum-allowed 3 mills for operations. Adams County, for example, now contributes 2.19 mills to the college.

The projected cuts for colleges and universities aren’t the only thing that has Nettles concerned. The state college board predicts it will lose about $9 million for its state workforce training program, in which Co-Lin participates to help train local workers.

&uot;I don’t know how that ($9 million) is going to affect us,&uot; Nettles said, but he worries that it could force cuts in the programs Co-Lin offers.

While cuts in the operations budgets are inevitable, Nettles is still hopeful that Co-Lin and Alcorn will receive legislative appropriations for a planned $10 million fine arts center on the Natchez campus of both schools.

&uot;I can’t comment on how (the budget cuts) will affect the request,&uot; he said. &uot;I just don’t know.&uot;

The funding for such projects comes from a different budget than the one that pays for operations of colleges and universities, Nettles said.

Last December, Co-Lin bought a $500,000, 11-acre piece of land at the front of the campus for the fine arts center.

&uot;It’s a different source of funding,&uot; Nettles said. &uot;That’s why we can do things like purchase the land for the fine arts center. That’s for capital improvements.&uot;