One month into the school year, universities are being forced to scramble to absorb a 6 percent "holdback" in state funding.

The University of Idaho will have to find $5 million in cuts from its general fund and $1.5 million from its agricultural and extension service. In a letter to faculty and staff Friday, new U of I President Duane Nellis pledged to develop a "mid-year budget plan" to manage operating expenses, capital outlay, vacancies and salaries and benefits.

In a campus speech Monday, Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas was dour about the prospect of making $4 million in cuts — which may target administrative support, travel and courses with low enrollment. "How can you do a university budget in three weeks?" Vailas said, according to the Idaho State Journal. "You can't. That's an oxymoron."

Boise State University is looking to tap its own reserves to absorb $4.7 million in cuts.

One of the arguments against cutting K-12 education funding is that it is difficult to adjust mid-year. And it is. Much of a school district's budget goes into salaries and benefits, and districts lock into contracts at the start of a year. So it made a lot of sense for Gov. Butch Otter to recommend taking $49.3 million out of budget reserves to spare K-12 from cuts.

Yet Otter is expecting the universities to make a mid-year budget adjustment — for the second straight school year. That's an extremely tall order. Even the failsafe favored by many politicians — using increased student fees and tuition to offset shortages in state funding — is of no help in the middle of an academic year. Fees and tuition are set the preceding spring, months before the start of fall classes.

That's why, the more we learn about it, Otter's campus cuts may rank as one of his worst decisions of the year.

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