The economic downturn has permanently altered Northern Arizona University's budget, regardless of the infusion of stimulus dollars, said NAU President John Haeger at a Monday forum for faculty, staff and students.

The budget outlook is "changing the way we operate as a university" and "we won't be getting that money back," Haeger noted in answering an audience's member question about whether federal stimulus dollars could be used to rehire recently laid off faculty and staff.

Haeger delivered his remarks along with a slide show presentation outlining the budget outlook at NAU. He then took questions from the High Country Conference Center audience, which numbered about 225 people.

Turnout at the forum was lighter than university officials expected. Chairs were set up to accommodate more than 700, and three giant screens were used to project Haeger's slide presentation.

Some exchanges included:

— NAU Professor Marcus Ford, as he has publicly stated before, questioned whether intercollegiate athletics, with a budget of $7 million, has a place at a higher education institution like NAU, especially during tough economic times. Haeger acknowledged that as administration and faculty look at "revisioning" the university for the future, every program needs to be on table, but that every research institution he knows of and that NAU considers a peer institution has intercollegiate athletics.

— Criminal Justice Professor Nancy Wonders, who also chairs the department, drew the only applause of the afternoon for her observation that "morale is low" on campus and her warning that NAU will suffer from "faculty flight" as professors try to maintain their research projects, as well as taking on increased teaching loads with larger class sizes. Federal stimulus dollars should be used to retain faculty, she said.

Other questions from the audience ranged from why furloughs include grant-funded positions, which aren't paid with state-allocated funds; to how enrollment might be affected; to why not more transparency about increases in fees paid by students; to proposed increases in the technology fee and tuition surcharge for the fall 2009 semester.

NAU's administration is operating on the assumption that its state allocation for fiscal year 2010 will be similar, if not smaller, than $140.2 million it has to finish this year.

NAU was pegged to receive $161 million for this current fiscal year, but a steep drop in state revenues has meant widespread cuts across state agencies and to the university system. NAU's share was $21.3 million and achieved by finding $8 million in one-time cuts and $13.3 million in permanent cuts.

The challenge facing NAU administration for fiscal year 2010 is that it has to find $8 million in permanent cuts, since it already swept local fund balances and used up its one-time cuts.

The tuition surcharge, if approved by the Arizona Board of Regents at the end of the month, will raise about $3.6 million. Students who signed up for NAU's four-year guaranteed tuition program in the fall of 2008 will not be affected by the surcharge. The technology fee, which also needs approval, would generate about $1.1 million. In total, the surcharge and tech fee would add $4.7 million to NAU's coffers.

Tuition increases ranging between 9 percent and 14 percent for the coming academic year have already been approved.

Haeger also noted there are lots of details that need to be worked out regarding the federal stimulus dollars and warned that some of the toughest budget decisions might not be able to be made until June or July.