Potential budget cuts threaten University - Lydia Nuzum, Daily Athenaeum

University officials have said the potential $12 million budget decrease to West Virginia University funds announced last month may affect tuition and programs if approved in 2013. Narvel Weese, Vice President of Administration and Finance for WVU, said if the budget cut is approved at the state level, it will be the first of its scale WVU has seen in more than a decade. "What we’re in the process of being asked to do is submit a budget that has a 7.5 percent reduction as part of building the governor’s budget, which then has to go through the legislative appropriations process and ultimately be signed by the governor sometime in late March," Weese said. "So, we are in stage one in a process that has multiple stages." The proposed decrease is part of a 7.5 percent spending cut West Virginia governor Earl Ray Tomblin has recommended in order to curb a nearly $300 million spending gap in the current state budget. The new number will reflect a 2.5 percent increase to the rolling 5 percent implemented in previous years, and it will impact state agencies across every sector – including public post-secondary institutions that receive government funding. http://www.thedaonline.com/news/potential-budget-cuts-threaten-university-1.2922961