http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2017/06/15/jackson-state-cut-budget-borrow-money/102904048/
Jackson State University will cut its next budget by nearly 8 percent and borrow $6 million as it tries to cut expenses and rebuild financial reserves.
The moves at Mississippi’s largest historically black university went forward Thursday as College Board trustees approved budgets for all eight public universities for the upcoming year. The system’s overall budget will fall by $30 million, or less than 1 percent, to $4.5 billion, largely because state appropriations have fallen. Universities started the current budget with $773 million in state aid, but after multiple cuts will start the 2018 budget on July 1 with $667 million.
The board also eliminated nine Jackson State academic departments through mergers and downgraded the School of Journalism and Media Studies to a department. Supporters of some units, including the Department of Speech Communications, had questioned the plan. That department will be merged with the Department of English and Foreign Languages.
The university is also laying off 42 non-faculty employees, suspending men’s and women’s golf teams for two years, and moving to close a branch campus in Madison. The cuts are supposed to save $2 million , after interim President Rod Paige earlier cut more than $4 million by eliminating vacant positions and curtailing travel spending.