This morning I attended my first Board of Regents meeting as UHD President. One of the biggest issues we discussed was budget. The UH system is in good shape. Several of the campuses are growing and research is growing significantly, particularly at UH, but also for the entire system. There were two main presentations, one on the budget and one on research. The following is a statement I sent out today to the entire campus:
At today's meeting, the UH System Board of Regents voted to approve the FY2010 operating budget for UHD. This budget reflects the priorities established by the UHD community through the spring planning process.
UHD’s total budget for the coming fiscal year totals $137 million and includes $6.4 million in new operating resources. We focused on the following high-profile initiatives in presenting the budget to the Board and to the Board’s Finance and Administration Committee:
• Advising and Scholarship Support ($1.8 million) – UHD will expand its advising and transcript evaluation services by adding 11 more advisers and transcript evaluators in order to better serve both first time in college and transfer students. We will also be adding 2 transfer coordinators and a Veterans Services coordinator. Funding for this initiative will come from the new advising fee. The bulk of the new money reflects increased scholarship support for UHD students from state and institutional sources.
• New Faculty to Support Growth ($924,000) – This budget includes 14 new, full-time faculty positions needed to accommodate our projected enrollment growth.
• Involvement in UH System Northwest Initiative at Lone Star College’s new center off Texas 249 ($250,000). We have committed these funds to ensure that UHD will have the resources needed to be an active partner in delivering courses and degrees at the teaching center.
Developing an operating budget for the coming year presented many challenges. The state budget for the FY2010/2011 biennium contains an estimated $12 billion of one-time federal stimulus funds. UHD’s FY2010/2011 appropriation includes $1.15 million of federal stimulus funds.
Due to the one-time nature of these funds, and because there are continuing concerns about the national and state economy, we have decided to delay making a decision about salary increases for UHD employees. None of the UHS universities included unconditional, base-funded salary increases in their FY 2010 budgets, except for UH-Clear Lake, which was not able to provide pay increases to its employees for the current year (FY2009).
It is worthwhile to note that in many states, public college and universities are experiencing conditions that are much worse than the conditions in Texas. A recent report issued by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit , Washington D. C.-based think tank that examines federal and state fiscal policy, stated that as a result of this economic downturn, at least 32 states have implemented severe cuts to public colleges and universities.
By contrast, UHD continues to grow. As of yesterday, UHD had 11,205 students registered, an increase of 486 students (4.5 percent) compared to the number registered at this time last fall. Total student credit hours as of yesterday are also up by 5.3 percent. If we succeed in building our student credit hours throughout the year, a pay raise may be possible in spring, 2010.
In closing, let me say that while there are certainly challenges, they are greatly outnumbered by the opportunities. UHD is a young and vital institution in a high-growth part of the country and it has very talented faculty and staff. In the coming months, we will examine ways that we can both grow and re-shape our enrollments in strategic and resource-positive ways in order to benefit our students and therefore the institution. Thank you for continuing to encourage students to enroll at and attend UHD.
"At UHD, We're Making A Name For Ourselves."
I tried for 10 minutes to copy and paste a response to this interesting entry, and failed. So, I emailed it to you.
ReplyDeleteThis excellent blog post brought several things into sharp relief for me as I read it. I will focus on two in my response (as I have syllabi to finish!): (1) the thermodynamic law that governs all – energy – in the form of resources and (2) the cog that runs the wheel, the professoriate.
ReplyDeleteON RESOURCES. As a biologist, I tend to think about resources. Organisms thrive or not, adapt or not, based on resources. Affordability of higher education has always been the driving engine for most American families. Where you send your children is completely resource dependent. In my family, our philosophy with our sons is/was finding a university we could (1) afford that provides the (2) best education, (3) with a challenging peer group. Independent adults looking for higher education choose their education largely based on at least the first two. People want quality per dollar spent. Affordability (i.e., available resources) drives choices.
Of course, the other organism in this niche of our economy is the university. Universities have an amalgam of resources all of which are dependent on available dollars. Hence, the challenge of affordability is just as acute and chronic for the university. While I am very hopeful that Dr. Flores’ Leadership Group will articulate a vision for UHD reaching out to 2020-2025, I think we have some very difficult choices ahead as the “brutal facts” above will impact the priorities we set. Ecologically, an organism can expand their resources by expanding its niche. My interpretation of much of what I see above is a rallying cry for UHD to do just that. Many of the points above are about new niches becoming available in terms of newer, different, and expanding student populations. It also highlights a changing environment…..and here for UHD, it is adapt or become endangered. I hope UHD thinks broadly in the coming years, as delivery of higher education to our target audiences will require differing, creative, economically frugal solutions that go beyond the ever changing technologies.
ON THE PROFESSORIATE. I interpret some of the outcomes of a progressive era of reduced resources for families and universities (since about 1980), embedded in many of Prof. Flores’ statements above, as being about the expectations of future students and the streamlining and compression of college curricula. Looking around what is happening across universities, we are in the middle of a transformation of higher education that impacts not only what the universities deliver to students but it also brings into sharp relief for me the future of the professoriate. We recently redefined the professoriate at UHD through policy but I truly believe that it was obsolete when Dr. Castillo’s ink dried.
As a professor, my biggest fear is that governing bodies will begin to redefine the professoriate long before universities, and more importantly its professors, will even begin to address it. I wonder whether at UHD, having struggled so long to define the professoriate here in a way commensurate with the last century that we leery of looking ahead from the fatigue of the previous battle (just a feeling I have and I could be misreading my colleagues). Nonetheless, with limiting resources for the coming decade ahead of us and the challenges highlighted above make me think that if UHD professors do not start this “confront the brutal facts” discussion we will sacrifice professorial influence over a new and emerging view of the professoriate.