CHAPEL HILL — UNC system President Erskine Bowles painted a bleak picture Thursday of the UNC system if the more severe of two budget-cutting scenarios is necessary.
As many as 1,700 jobs could be lost, he said.
Bowles even suggested that if North Carolina's economic health doesn't improve, the UNC system may eventually have to close a campus - which he called a smarter strategic and fiscal move than simply chipping away at every university in the system.
"If we keep having cuts, cuts, cuts, we'll have to look at eliminating schools, campuses," Bowles told members of the UNC system's Board of Governors. "If it went on for several years, that would be the smart decision. The unfortunate, smart decision."
To be clear, the university's situation is nowhere near that dire yet. But the state is facing a $3.2billion budget hole, $1.3 billion in expiring taxes and the impending loss of $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money. With all that on their plate, state officials have directed the university system to plan cuts of 5 percent and 10 percent for next year
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