Florence Babb, an endowed professor at the University of Florida, is getting hit hard by the $69 million that was slashed from the university’s budget last year. Ignoring her contractual agreement issued when she was appointed in 2004, the university asked Babb to up her commitment to the school, teaching three courses per year as opposed to the two to which she had initially agreed, according to InsideHigherEd.com.

A statewide union now stands behind Babb in her fight against the university, which alleges that a collective bargaining agreement with the faculty union permits adjusting course loads despite prior appointment arrangements. Under the contract, UF can determine the “mix” of a faculty member’s responsibilities, which encompass teaching research and service.

Babb — who is paid $99,223 annually and serves as graduate coordinator of the women’s studies center — was not an isolated victim of the university’s budget cuts. According to the university provost, the college asked another endowed faculty member to up his course load, but he decided he’d rather retire than take on the task.

Here on East Hill we fear that the burden of Cornell’s $200 million budget shortfall may begin to weigh all too heavily on one of the University’s most valuable assets — its faculty. With $50 million being cut yearly from across the University, we hope Cornell does not follow the lead of many schools like UF that are finding loopholes that force faculty members to bear the brunt of budget cuts.

60 percent of the University’s annual operating budget is spent on salaries and benefits for employed faculty and staff. Thus, we are not surprised that colleges across the University are announcing plans to shrink the size of the faculty members in the coming years. As The Sun recently reported, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences announced they would scratch up to 45 faculty jobs in the near future as a result of the college’s 5-percent budget cut.

But with steady — if not increasing — student enrollment, decreasing the number of professorial posts is not a sustainable plan. We’ve been told time and time again that the University will take steps to avoid “draconian” cuts, but the case of Ms. Babb brings skepticism to the table. Layoffs may be the University’s last option, but we are ever more apprehensive of the more subtle approaches the University may take to limiting its operating costs with respect to its faculty. Putting pressure on faculty to up their course loads takes away from research and other assets that keep the ivory tower standing strong.

We are well aware that limiting dining hours and cutting funding for Slope Day was only the beginning. In the coming weeks we will see the University make critical decisions on how the decreasing operating budget will creep up on the facets of the University that make Cornell what it is. It is therefore our hope that when Cornell’s colleges submit their budgets to reconcile the University-wide budget cuts, the Office of the Provost will effectively communicate these plans to appease our concerns.