In order to survive, the University of the District of Columbia -- which has already had furloughs and delays in opening -- faces the loss of more than one hundred faculty members and serious cuts in its programs.

"We will have to cut off some fingers and toes," said Dr. Reginald Wilson, a member of the board of trustees of the university. "But the university will apparently be saved." With city legislators and members of Congress questioning whether the university should even exist, survival is not to be taken lightly.

First, UDC was forced to cut its budget by more than $30 million in one year. Then it was told to cut another $16.2 million and its president, Dr. Tilden LeMelle re signed on November 30, saying, "too often of late, the politics of blame and confusion over control of the District has focused on my stewardship of the University."

Caught in the maelstrom of the politics of the District of Columbia, which has itself been nut under the control of a congressionally appointed financial control board, the university has had to argue for its very existence, reminding its city that no other college or university has as its mission educating the ordinary citizen. When the chairman of the Financial Control Board, Dr. Andrew grimmer, recently said that he sees a need for a public institution to serve the educational needs of the city's citizens, UDC supporters breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"The question [of UDC's survival] has been raised and the question has been answered," said John Britton, public information officer for the university. That isn't the last word from Brimmer, however. Brimmer's control board has instituted a review that, in the words of Mark Goldstein, deputy executive director, "will examine the management and the structure of the university and its effectiveness in providing higher education. We expect that we would in our report make major recommendations for altering the structure of how the university provides both the education and the management structure that exists."