11 top Puerto Rico university officials resign amid crisis

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Eleven top public university officials in Puerto Rico have resigned to protest multimillion-dollar budget cuts sought by a federal control board that oversees the U.S. territory's finances amid a dire economic crisis.

The unprecedented move surprised many and prompted Gov. Ricardo Rossello to warn that his administration will intervene if the university board of directors does not submit a fiscal plan with the $300 million in cuts requested. The board called a meeting late Friday to talk about the issue.

Rossello said during a news conference that he had given university officials sufficient time to submit a fiscal plan required by the federal control board, which proposes that the university cut its budget by 30 percent.

"The majority have jumped ship. They abandoned their responsibility," Rossello said. "I respected and still respect the university's autonomy, but we have to take action now."

Those who stepped down include Celeste Freytes, the interim president of Puerto Rico's largest public university, and 10 deans at campuses across the island. The system has a total of 11 campuses and serves more than 50,000 students.

Government Secretary William Villafane accused Freytes of not cooperating with an administration that has to cut costs and submit a fiscal plan on Feb. 28 as required by the federal control board.

"They're setting a bad example by running away from responsibility during a critical moment," he said. "We're doing what we have to do to straighten out our public finances."

Puerto Rico is struggling to restructure nearly $70 billion in public debt amid a decade-long economic crisis, and Rossello has implemented cuts across public agencies in a bid to save money.

The officials who resigned said in a letter that the university system already has seen a $348 million cut in recent years and that professors have been denied sabbaticals and salary increases. They said Rossello's administration is unfairly imposing draconian cuts on the university system compared with other government agencies.

"An attempt to overturn the budget of the public university system in less than a month is an exercise in futility," they wrote. "We condemn the insistence of paying the public debt at the university's expense."