For weeks, Youngstown State University's administration has been under fire over it's plans to eliminate some academic programs and lay off some faculty.

Now, they're firing back at the faculty union, saying characterizations that they are balancing the university's budget on the backs of academics, are simply not accurate.

In a briefing held to discuss the budget Wednesday morning, the administration pointed out that they've taken on significant cuts, dating back to last year, before they even began cutting any academics.

"Reduce staffing levels through the lay off of more than 40 non-teaching employess and which furloughed hundreds of other non-faculty employees who cut the salaries of administrators by up to 15 percent," said Neal McNally, vice president for finance business operations at YSU. "So, those actions taken altogether, reduced personnel costs by about 4 million dollars," he said.

McNally says this represents a tremendous amount of shared sacrifice among the administration.

While the faculty union feels only academics are being touched, the administration is saying that this is only part of a long term process.

"I don't mean to imply that the university can right-size itself overnight," said McNally. "To the contrary, it is going to take some time. We certainly understand we cannot cut ourselves to prosperity," he said.

McNally says although YSU is not in dire straits, they need to take action now to prevent that from happening in the future.