Penn State is not immune to the national recession, and when former governor Tom Ridge froze $200 million in state budget funds last fall, it included $3.4 million of Penn State's appropriation.

If funding cuts continue, both tuition and class sizes could increase.

In December, Gov. Mark Schweiker's administration announced that the estimated state revenue shortage is about $622 million, even higher than earlier predictions.

Penn State has heard nothing more from the state government about changes in the budget freeze, university spokesman Bill Mahon said.

There are two options for what can happen to the frozen funds, Mahon said.

The state could release the money to be used in the budget, or it could take it away from the university completely.

"It has happened before where we've received a budget for the year, but partway through the year the state had to take back part of that money," Mahon said.

The implications of the recision, or budget freeze, may be invisible to students, but departments university-wide are feeling the squeeze. Since the state might not release the funds, academic college deans and campus office directors were told to be frugal.

"We cut back on a number of things where we could," said Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, one of the university's largest colleges. "We also implemented a hiring freeze on staff. . . . We've just tried to look where we could tighten our belts across the college."

The state provides 14.6 percent of Penn State's budget, and the freeze affects only 1 percent of that amount. But if recisions continue, it could be much more significant, especially for students.

Welch said further cuts could worsen the problem, meaning fewer new faculty, larger class sizes and tuition increases for students.

Even non-academic departments, such as the Department of Public Information, are trimming spending.

"In my office, for instance, we plan to cut a couple issues of the faculty-staff newspaper," Mahon said. "We're just trying to feel our way through the rest of the year."

The Eberly College of Science, like the College of the Liberal Arts, limited hiring this year. But construction funds for two new science buildings come from a separate budget that is not affected by the freeze, Dean Daniel Larson said.

Larson said the cut comprises a very small portion of the overall budget but still hurts the university, and he said the potential for more significant problems exists.

"Of course the state allocation is just a total fraction of the university budget . . . Pennsylvania is not very generous in support of higher education," he said.

Compared to other Big Ten universities, Penn State ranks last in receiving state allocations, according to University Relations.

Mahon said the money would be released by the state if the recession ends before July, but Ralph Oliva, an expert in business and economics, said a turnaround that soon is unlikely.

"Fundamentally, the state budget is tied inevitably to the economic health of the state," Oliva said.

Oliva is executive director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, which operates through the Smeal College of Business Administration. The institute researches the health of its member firms, then makes suggestions. Through his observations of firms within the state, Oliva can make some predictions about the state economy's track.

"My best prognostication is that we won't see things get much worse but we won't see a springtime on this economy . . . until the fourth quarter of this year or into next year," he said.

Oliva said higher education should be the last thing forced to feel drops in state funding, and he said many Pennsylvanians would agree.

"That's tough," he said about the cut, "because the demand for our products and services here at Penn State remains very high."