The president of Georgia Highlands College (GHC) and the mayor of Dallas are not happy that GHC’s Paulding campus might be closed, at least temporarily.

“The last thing in the world we want to do in terms of the future of this institution is close the Paulding campus, particularly in light of how good the county and Chamber of Commerce have been to us,” said GHC President Dr. Randy Pierce yesterday. “We will do anything we can do to make sure those doors stay open.

“Having said that, in the worst-case scenario, everything is on the table if the state is cutting 25 percent of state appropriations in our budget,” said Pierce.

The GHC president said the college learned this week “it may be necessary to cut an additional $4 million from the 2011 fiscal year. Of this, $2.4 million is beyond what was included in the budget recommendation by the governor last week and is unanticipated.

“It is very likely that entire programs and college functions could be eliminated or drastically reduced,” Pierce said. “If this sort of financial exigency were to be declared, the way would be cleared for reductions in force among tenured and untenured faculty, as well as staff.”

He said tuition increases and retention of the $113 million Gov. Sonny Perdue has requested for the rising number of students in the 35 institutions of the state university system could reduce the need for such drastic cuts and closings.

“We were asked to make cuts based on these assumptions” of tuition freezes and not getting the $113 million, Pierce said, adding that his opinion is that those two scenarios might not happen.

“We will fight tooth and nail to keep [the Paulding and Douglas campuses] open,” he declared.

Closing the GHC campus in Paulding “is a terrible precedent to set,” Dallas Mayor Boyd Austin said at Monday’s City Council meeting. State budget constraints aren’t cutting to the bone, he said: “They’re cutting to the marrow.

“The local legislative delegation needs to be inundated with calls and letters” opposing the closure, said Austin.

Kennesaw State University hasn’t announced plans to eliminate its Paulding campus, Austin added, “but the loss of Georgia Highlands would be detrimental.”