Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The state of Georgia, pinched by falling tax revenue, is slashing $136 million from the budgets of its public colleges. To save, the schools are cutting jobs, services and even subscriptions to obscure academic journals.

Jill Parrott, 27, a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Georgia in Athens, said she may lose access to the Rhetoric Society Quarterly, which costs the school $200 a year.

The library, which is canceling at least 660 journals to save $1.66 million annually, is among hundreds of departments, at 35 schools in the University System of Georgia, that are scrimping. The U.S. economic slowdown means collections of sales and corporate taxes are falling, squeezing state budgets. Like Georgia's, university systems in Nevada, California and New York are among those already facing budget reductions.

``As public institutions, we suffer when the economy suffers,'' said Erroll Davis Jr., chancellor of the University System of Georgia, based in Atlanta, in an interview. ``We are one of many competing for the state tax dollar.''

The U.S. economy suffered its biggest decline since 2001 in the third quarter, with gross domestic product contracting at an annual rate of 0.3 percent, according to the Commerce Department.

The regents of the University of California system, based in Oakland, slashed the annual budget by $48 million for fiscal 2009 and are requiring $100 million in further reductions. The moves amount to a 5 percent budget cut, and more may follow, President Mark Yudof said in a statement on Oct. 21.

Casinos, Cornell

Officials of the State University of New York system, based in Albany, anticipate fiscal 2009 cuts of $210 million, or 15 percent, for 29 campuses run by the state, said David Henahan, a spokesman. The budget for the Nevada System of Higher Education, with headquarters in Las Vegas, was chopped 7.9 percent, or $51.4 million, and may be reduced as much as 20 percent in fiscal 2010 as casino-tax revenue plummets, said John Kuhlman, manager of public information.

Private schools also are feeling the pinch as the value of investments shrinks. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, said in a statement on Oct. 30 that it was suspending both hiring of non-faculty staff and construction for at least 90 days.

Middlebury College, a liberal-arts school in Vermont, has canceled trips for students to study theater in London and religion in Nepal. The school will instead use the $73,000 set aside for travel to help students pay tuition, Sarah Ray, a spokeswoman, said on Nov. 6.

Paper Cuts

The world's wealthiest institution of higher learning, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hasn't made cuts, John Longbrake, a spokesman, said in an e-mail on Oct. 31.

At the University of Georgia, where students were focused in late October on an annual football game, nicknamed ``the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,'' against the University of Florida, the cuts are making their way into classrooms.

Professors have stopped handing out printed materials to save paper, the campus study hall reduced its hours of operation, closing at 2 a.m. instead of staying open all night, and the library dropped some online databases.

Parrott, speaking at the Five Guys hamburger shop off campus, said she feared the school won't be considered a first- class institution if the library pares its offerings.

``If word gets out that the University of Georgia has cut journal subscriptions, it lessens the value of our degree,'' Parrott said. Access to current scholarship in rhetoric is necessary for her dissertation on how copyrights influence views of authorship, which is a focus of rhetorical studies, she said.

Slicing Pizza

Another state school, the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, is cutting $15.8 million from a total budget of $1.14 billion, said Vice Provost Anderson Smith.

Kris Carta, a 20-year-old student from Seattle, has stopped ordering pizza for bimonthly meetings of the history club. The money saved may be needed for museum visits, he said.

``It's $40 every two weeks for a very small department,'' Carta said. ``I'd rather it not be a problem later on.''

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed budget legislation in May that provided $2.3 billion for the university system's operations in the year ending next June 30, said Chief Financial Officer Usha Ramachandran. In July, after fiscal 2008 tax revenue fell 1.1 percent from the year before, Perdue began holding back 6 percent of monthly disbursements.

``The looming question is, `Is that enough?''' said Tim Burgess, senior vice president for finance and administration at the University of Georgia. ``It's that uncertainty that's causing everybody a lot of anxiety.''

Georgia Tech, with more than 19,000 students, has imposed a hiring freeze of non-tenure-track positions, cut 15 janitorial and maintenance jobs, and restricted travel, Vice Provost Smith said. The landscaping budget was trimmed by $50,000 and painting and carpeting projects were put on hold.

Peanut Bugs

At the Athens campus, the system's flagship, the state contributes $495 million, or 35 percent, of the $1.35 billion budget. To squeeze out $30 million, the school deferred maintenance and eliminated 47 positions for teaching assistants.

The College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences can't hire an entomologist to research insect infestation of the state's peanut crop, a task required under the university's mission as a land-grant college, said Dean J. Scott Angle.

``There are going to be a lot of people who are unhappy with our ability to deliver services,'' Angle said. ``There will be some pain felt around the state.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Staley in New York at ostaley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 10, 2008 00:00 EST