By Olivia Krauth–

Saying it’s “important to remember it’s just a proposal,” Interim Provost Neville Pinto explained budget changes to the faculty senate today.

In the meeting, held in a half-empty Chao Auditorium, Pinto fielded questions and comments from faculty. Most comments focused on Bevin’s rhetoric about providing more funding to STEM fields instead of liberal arts fields.

“I would like to get a slim sense that we are part of the conversation,” one language professor said after a discussion of university input in the budget and its reasoning.

Later in the meeting, President James Ramsey said U of L will fight the budget as hard as they can.

U of L will lose $6.3 million immediately due to executive action. If passed, U of L will lose another $12.6 million in the next fiscal year. The fiscal year after will not see a cut.

Pinto did not outline how U of L will financially adjust to the immediate fund cut.

Pinto, however, finds the post-secondary performance fund for FY18 more troubling. Each state university will give up one-third of its state allocation to the fund. Universities will receive money back from the fund based on their performance judged against a set of metrics. According to Pinto, those metrics have not been decided yet, nor have the people in charge of the process been selected.

It was originally reported U of L would be getting $200 million in funding for capital projects. Pinto said U of L only received permission to pursue funding on those projects. Anything over $600 thousand is considered a capital project and needs state permission to move forward.

Pinto said there is no funding in Bucks for Brains in the proposed budget.

After Pinto, SGA Top Four members Alex Stewart and Kaylee Brandt spoke about the new classroom building and SAC. They say the two projects help with two goals in the 21st Century Initiative plan: empowering undergraduate learning and environment for student success.

To make way for the construction, the Student Service Annex and Crawford Gym will both be demolished.