OGDEN — Weber State University’s president probably knows Utah’s higher education system as well as anyone.

F. Ann Millner has been an administrator there for going on three decades. Drawing upon all of that experience, she says these are the most challenging times, in terms of a lack of money to run the university at full throttle as in the past.

“I’ve been at Weber State University 27 years, and have never experienced budget cuts like this,” she said. “I’ve seen budget cut cycles, but this is probably close to three times larger than I’ve ever seen.

“These are very difficult times, pretty unprecedented,” Millner said in an interview with the Clipper Tuesday morning.

But she’s hardly ready to “close shop,” pointing out things could have been worse.

“Fortunately, we took an overall 17 percent base cut, but the federal stimulus money replaced about half of that for this next year.

“It’s one-time money and only replaces (lost state funds) for this year,” she said. “That is really helpful this year, in that it will give us the opportunity to make these adjustments over two budget years.”

That’s because the state operates on a July 1-June 30 budget cycle.

“We didn’t do furloughs,” Millner said, as Logan-based Utah State University had to do, with each employee required to take one week off without pay.

Instead, a hiring freeze for certain positions and using some “one-time resources” are ways “to help us get through this.”

Out of a university workforce with the equivalent of 2,000 full-time workers, only 10 positions have been cut. And 50 employees are expected to take advantage of a “voluntary separation.”

“We’re expecting that we’ll be able to keep the number of layoffs small” because of those other procedures put into place, Millner said.

“The highest priority has to be the education of our students, providing the support services for them. That must be the highest priority of the institution,” she said.

That said, there still is the stark reality of less money to go around.

“We’ll be looking at cuts in hours, such as at the library and student union. Those are pretty core services for the university, Everything will be looked at in the institution,” Millner said.

The Davis Campus, overflowing in terms of evening enrollment at the one building at its Layton campus, “will continue,” she emphasized.

Millner was instrumental in negotiations over many years bringing the Davis campus to reality and has always been a strong supporter.

“The need and demand at the Davis campus has continued to grow. We do need an additional building to help meet needs there, will continue to work toward that.”

To stretch resources, portable classrooms housing Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science (NUAMES), housed at the campus for the past two years, are pressed into evening school service. Several North Davis area high schools also continue to provide classroom space for evening classes, something they already did prior to the school’s opening 5 1/2 years ago.

Bruce Davis has managed the facility, that serves well over 3,000 students, since its inception.

“As we look at the needs of Hill AFB, expectations for growth at Falcon Hill, for those to succeed, it’s going to be very important for Weber State to be able to meet the educational needs to support those employers,” Millner said.

“From an economic development stand point, it’s very important in the state. Economic growth has to be the priority for all of us. That’s how we’re going to work out of this, to grow new companies, to be able to recruit, expand.”

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com