Nearly every state is projecting a revenue shortfall for both the current budget year and the next fiscal year, and few public-college officials expect to dodge the budget ax. But some higher-education leaders and state policy makers see the bleak economic outlook as an opportunity to press for broad changes in college policy and operations that have not had much traction under better financial circumstances. Bad budget times are also leading college and government officials to suggest ideas for paring costs that have been too politically unpopular to even put on the table in past years, such as merging institutions, eliminating tenure, and even turning a major public research university into a private one.