ANALYSIS: Budget cuts? What budget cuts?

You wouldn't have realized it if you weren't listening closely as university President Dan

Mote reached the final stretch of his state of the campus address yesterday, but this year, academic programs will be cut.

The state has slashed $37.8 million from the university's budget since August, and the university hasn't seen cuts of this magnitude since the 2002-2003 school year.

With additional cuts almost certainly on the way, Mote has asked deans and vice presidents to submit plans to reduce their budgets by 8 to 10 percent. He received those proposals Tuesday, but in his address to the University Senate yesterday, he largely glossed over budget calculations that could result in larger classes, fewer class choices and reduced campus services.

Mote has almost certainly been planning for the possibility of scaling back university programs since the summer, perhaps since even earlier. Yesterday, in his annual speech laying out the year ahead, he barely acknowledged this.

He talked at length about how furloughs and voluntary retirements could save money, but in his only overt mention of cutting university programs, his remarks were brief.

"Some program reductions will be part of these savings too," he said.

In total, the program cuts got 10 words out of the hour-long speech.

By contrast, the university's designation as "Tree Campus USA"  saw 33 words of attention.

The state's higher education cuts loomed over the entire address, but specific references to how a barebones budget might affect university life were minimal. Amidst the economic gloom, Mote repeatedly spun dour news in a more positive direction.

The speech's upbeat tone was hardly a surprise — in the fall of 2002, he declared the first month of school "the best one since I became president in 1998." And in many ways,

Mote's sunny outlook yesterday was  justified — despite the tough times, the university last year garnered an unprecedented $518 million in research funding and $113 million in donations.

Still, the two moments in Mote's speech that drew the loudest and most enthusiastic response from the audience were rooted in unpleasant financial realities.

The crowd laughed heartily when Mote made light of its space shortage, which he called the university's "greatest long-term challenge." He quipped that "if we had more space available here, it would be more bad space."

The joke was funny, but not because it was true. Leaky roofs, temperamental heating and antiquated electrical systems are routine in aging university buildings, as the university has backlogged about $600 million in needed facilities repairs and renovations.

University senators also got a laugh when Mote cracked wise about new deans who don't have money to spend, and who probably won't for at least two years.

"Look at it this way, if a new dean had new money, she would have to spend it," he said. "But at the beginning a dean doesn't know how best to spend new money."

This time, Mote seemed serious. After the crowd settled, he broke from his prepared remarks.

"This is what a president is supposed to do," he said.

It was a simple explanation for his optimism.

slivnick at umdbk dot com