An open forum on the Academic Affairs budget revealed a potential reduction in library hours and student assistant positions.

“You might say the forecast for the library is rather dismal,” said Joe Crotts, department chair of Meriam Library.

The Dec. 1 forum left members of the Academic Senate fearful, reporting that individual department budgets are astoundingly short by thousands of dollars.

Department heads allegedly have plans to cut classes and many programs have been extremely underfunded compared to previous years.

Crotts says the student assistant budget is going to be severely compromised as a result of these extreme budget cuts.

“We are looking at the possibility,” Crotts said. “If the numbers remained unchanged as they are now, we may not be open until midnight Monday through Thursday.”

After 5 p.m. during weekdays and weekends, the library is run by 50 student assistants who cannot be supported by the current funding in place now.

In an email, Interim Provost Susan Elrod— whose department produces the campus budget— said, “We have received more funding from the state of California; however, our personnel costs have also risen. In addition, our reserve account balance has decreased to levels that do not allow us to continue funding one-time allocations as we have in the past to supplement base budget allocations.”

For a closer look at the budget, visit the Provost’s Office website or this outline.

Carly Plemons can be reached at [email protected] or @plemnz on Twitter.