Budget cuts not likely to affect all Tufts Schools

Though Tufts was one of the Universities hit in the wave of recent state budget cuts, administrators remain confident in their ability to maintain research and academic programs.

The School of Veterinary Medicine lost $3.6 million in funding two weeks ago when Governor Mitt Romney announced education cuts totaling $41 million. The school will suffer substantially since the money had been allocated for operational costs.

But administrators said other Tufts schools would encounter fewer problems if they suffered government budget cuts because their funding is used primarily for research.

Additionally, budget cuts are less likely to occur at other Tufts schools _ including Arts, Sciences and Engineering _ because the schools already receive so little funding.

Tufts presently receives $100 million from federal and state government sources, but the figure is considered relatively small, especially since it is split between the different schools that comprise the University. Because the portions received by each school are small, further cuts are less likely.

Tufts did suffer from some state funding cuts for scholarships in the school of Arts, Sciences & Engineering, but was able to cover the costs, Executive Administrative Dean Wayne Bouchard said. "We get money from the [Massachusetts Gilbert Matching Student Grant program], but it is in the ten thousands, not millions," he said. "We can absorb those cuts and we have made up the differences of the Gilbert Grant."

The School of Dental Medicine has recently experienced funding problems: in March of last year, $50 million was cut from MassHealth, the state's Medicaid system for poor patients. The program supports a number of the Dental School's patients, and used to provide full dental coverage.

But coverage has been reduced following the budget cuts, and MassHealth now only pays for dental work for those patients under the age of 21, and for extractions performed on adults. With less funding in place, fewer MassHealth patients will now be able to seek treatment at the Dental School for the insurance reasons.

But even without the support of MassHealth patients, the dental school is not concerned. "It's a concern for our clinic, but we have other patients who can pay," said Pat Campbell, the executive associate dean of the Dental School. "We don't feel vulnerable because of [the cuts], we feel concerned for people we could be helping."

Tufts School of Medicine is also not concerned about recent state budget cuts because it receives no state funding, and all federal funding is in the form of grants, which support research and financial aid and are not likely to decrease. "I think at the federal level research funding has been increasing at a healthy rate," said the school's Vice President of Finance Thomas McGurty. The Medical School receives about $40 million in such funding each year.

While he felt that the federal government was giving strong support to basic research, Executive Administrative Dean of the Medical School David Dolins said that he was more concerned with the money being allocated to the Medical School. "The only concern we have is our ability to win the money," he said.

The pressure being put on universities by the federal government to reduce their costs are "seriously challenging," Bouchard said. "However, it is still not likely that we will lose funding," he said. During fiscally conservative times there may be pressure to decrease funding, but it is highly unlikely that money Tufts receives will be cut entirely.

A small part of Arts, Sciences and Engineering's $230 million annual budget accounts for cost recovery, which allows for the cost of using equipment and space. Tufts is reimbursed this $3.4 million annual cost by the federal government. While there is no danger that the government will stop funding entirely, it has asked that Tufts keep this cost as low as possible.

But Tufts is not completely shielded from further possible cuts: state-funded service contracts, like the one at for police animal care at the Vet School, may be at risk. The Center for Applied Child Development is a service center affiliated with Tufts that does educational assessments and supports activities for local teachers. Because teachers pay with state funds, there is the possibility that Tufts could be indirectly affected.

"We kind of anticipated some loss of funds," said Bouchard. "Through our planning process we can accommodate these losses. If the cuts are more aggressive, we try to look at the best way to address the concern and minimize the impact on students. We hope it is a short term economy problem."