Gov. John Kasich will announce his first state budget Tuesday, but Kent State administrators have been preparing for cuts for months.

“All the leaders in the state are saying higher education will have some cuts,” Provost Robert Frank said. “It could be anywhere from something that we can manage to something that is very difficult for us to manage.”

Frank said the ability to manage would partly depend on whether Kasich increases or removes the tuition cap — which is currently set at 3.5 percent. The university isn’t keen to raise tuition, Frank said, but it would have to consider the option depending on the budget.

Because Frank doesn’t know the magnitude of the cuts, he said he asked deans to prepare for multiple scenarios. In January, he said to plan for 5, 10 and 20 percent cuts, but now several deans have said they’re expecting the highest number.

“We are working on the strong possibility that it will be 20 percent,” said Robert “Yank” Heisler, dean of the College of Business Administration. “And we’re working through a number of expense possibilities and savings possibilities that might get us close to satisfying our numbers.”

John Crawford, dean of the College of the Arts, also said he’s prepared for a 20 percent budget cut. He said he’s redistributing travel expenses, combining class sections and leaving faculty positions unfilled.

In fact, many faculty and staff positions are not being filled because of the university’s recent hiring freeze.

In past years, colleges could make their own hires. Now, they must go to the provost and prove candidates as necessary, or “mission critical,” hires.

Frank said the university has hired about 20 people since the freeze, and the most common reasons were because classes required a candidate’s level of expertise, and because several programs are growing with high enough enrollment to justify an increase in faculty.

“We’ve also hired one or two people that are part of our Excellence Agenda,” he said. “These are people that are of high national reputation that will bring quality programs to Kent State.”

For candidates who don’t make the cut — and to prepare their own budgets — colleges are also combining positions.

For instance, the College of Business Administration and the College of Education, Health and Human Services have been sharing one chief financial officer for about two months, and Heisler said it has been successful thus far. The university has also made several “coordinated hires” — faculty members that will teach in two or more colleges to save money.

Frank said at this point, the numbers are still speculations, and he’s hoping the cuts won’t be catastrophic.

“Any organization can tighten its belt and survive,” he said. “You can always do better at managing money and being more efficient with it, but when you get into anything that’s double digit drops, you’re talking about major adjustments — and those aren’t just belt-tightening things.”

Contact Jessica White at [email protected].