Chairs’ Meeting 7-5-07

1. Results of the legislative session:

a. A 1.9% annual increase in the state appropriation over the next biennium (excluding tuition revenue bonds).

b. Board of Regents is focusing on the medical schools and the non-flagship campuses, which are growing.

2. The Tower is funding a 2% average merit increase for faculty and state workers in each college, and will add an additional 1% for the faculty merit pool that will be allocated variably across colleges. The good news is that CoLA is doing better than average. Our total average merit increase is 3.33%.

3. The bad news is that, given the paltry increase in the state appropriation, the merit increase is being funded by a 2% budget reduction for 2007-2008 in every college on campus.

4. How are these budget cuts achieved? The largest budget categories (salaries, wages, and fringe) are more or less fixed, so the cuts must come from other sources. In the college, we have cut significant amounts from advising, career services, and instructional technology. But the largest remaining cuts must come from soft money budgets of departments and centers.

5. In the following academic year, there may be another 2% cut for each college.

6. In the face of these cuts, how can CoLA thrive?

a. Vigorous development efforts.

b. Tuition increases.

c. Tapping into unspent endowments (currently $20 million in CoLA).

The president and provost have urged us to use unspent balances where possible.

We’ve increased the payouts of endowment holders by 10% if they have been constant for the last 4+ years.

This year we increased the size of the merit pool beyond the 3.33% mentioned earlier by funding the merit increases of endowment holders out of the College’s share of the endowments.

We plan to increase transparency by allowing departments and endowment holders to see the unspent balances of the holder and the College.

If you have a plan for spending the College’s share of endowment money, submit a special funding request on line.