When it comes to budget cuts, nothing is sacred.

The Honors Program, which receives about $1.3 million of state funding, has faced total cuts of about 8 percent to its state money over the last fiscal year, said David Williams, the program’s director.

Though the program also receives money from private sources – including endowments and other unrestricted funds – it has still been forced to look for ways to reduce expenditures.

“People don’t realize that we are subject to the same cuts and, therefore, are experiencing the same kinds of challenges that the colleges are,” Williams said.

For Honors students, these cuts mean fewer enrichment options – some of which affect the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities.

Williams eliminated the International CURO symposium in Costa Rica – a program allowing undergraduate students to share their research findings in a global setting. He’s also gotten rid of some recruitment opportunities previously available for high school students.

The CURO summer research fellowship – which gives selected students the chance to dive into research projects during the summer months – has lost support as well.

But Williams has still been able to preserve some of the key components of the Honors Program. The intimate course settings supported by the Honors Program, as well as the opportunities the program provides for students to make faculty connections will not be lost.

For Liz Thorpe, a freshman Honors student from Atlanta, having smaller class sizes through the Honors Program has been a big advantage.

“For classes like English and history, I really prefer a smaller setting, and I really like to be able to discuss the ideas,” she said.

Thorpe’s Honors English class has less than 15 students, she said.

Williams said the average class size for an Honors course has remained fairly constant at about 17 students.

Though increasing class sizes has not been an issue for the program, the budget hardships have affected the number of Honors sections the University is able to offer.

As faculty numbers decrease, campus departments are struggling to cover all of their bases – including support for graduate seminars, major courses, freshman seminars and Honors classes, Williams said.

“I’ve had to be creative in finding ways to cover other things so that we don’t lose courses,” he said.

Because the Honors Program also receives funding from private sources, it has been able to offset some of the effects of the state cuts, he said.

But that won’t last long.

“I was able to kind of move some things around so that we could still cover the courses,” Williams said. “But further cuts will make that far more difficult to maintain.”

A majority of the program’s state funding goes toward supporting Honors classes.

Sabrina Ragaller, a junior Honors student from Henderson, Nev., said the Honors courses she’s taken have been some of her favorite at the University.

“They’ve really helped me build faculty relationships,” she said.

For Williams, connecting students and faculty is one of the reasons the Honors Program is a valuable investment for the University.

“What we’re trying to do over and over and over is to get great faculty with great students in meaningful ways and let the magic happen,” he said.