UHS budget for FY 2002
is pending
By Ken Fountain
Daily Cougar Staff
Members of the UH System Board of Regents
met Monday in the Melcher Board Room of the Athletic/Alumni Center to discuss
the plan and budget for fiscal year 2002.
The members were acting as committee members
only and no vote was taken. The board is expected to approve the plan and
budget at its next scheduled full meeting Aug. 16.
The total budget for the four-university
System calls for $702,585,336 in funds taken in, and $805,352,854 in expenditures.
The $102,767,518 difference will be made up from the
System's fund balance, leaving it with
$160,525,299.
Ken Fountain/The Daily
Cougar
UH Vice President for Administration
and Finance Randy Harris (left) discusses the Fiscal Year 2002 budget with
Board of Regents members Thad "Bo" Smith, Morgan Dunn O'Connor, Edwardo
Aguirre Jr., Theresa Chang, and George "Gene" McDavid during the board's
meeting Monday at the Athletic/Alumni Center.
The income for the main campus in FY 2002
will be $503,959,380, and its expenditures will be $586,806,914, leaving
a $82,847,534 deficit to be drawn from the fund balance.
Following Gov. Rick Perry's signing of
the FY 2002 Appropriations Bill approved by the Texas Legislature, UH will
receive $16.4 million in new state and local funds for general
allocation at the discretion of the administration
of President Arthur K. Smith.
According to the UH Plan, those funds are
earmarked for initiatives that support the UH administration's priorities:
• enhancing student support;
• ensuring academic excellence;
• enhancing research;
• enhancing the campus' physical and technological
infrastructures;
• increasing external support; and
• strengthening the University community
Of the $16.4 million in appropriated funds,
$5.5 million is from the Texas Tier One Excellence Initiative, which the
legislature approved in May after heavy campaigning from
administrators from UH, Texas Tech and
other state universities.
Moving UH into the ranks of the nation's
Tier One universities (a ranking of the most research-intensive schools)
has long been a goal of the Board of Regents, and Smith's efforts to
successfully gain the legislature's support
is a pinnacle of his term at UH, which began in 1996.
According to the plan, the University's
first budget priority during the next biennium is faculty and staff salary
increases. In FY 2002, they will receive an across-the-board 5 percent
increase, and a 4 percent raise in FY
2003.
Thus, $2,969,332 is committed for faculty
merit increases in FY 2002, and $632,333 for faculty merit-based equity
raises (which adjust salaries so that faculty members within
departments with equivalent evaluations
receive equivalent pay). $110,000 is earmarked for faculty rank promotions.
For the staff across-the-board increase,
$2,539,601 is set aside in FY 2002, and $604,667 for merit-based equity
raises.
After the money committed for faculty and
staff raises is taken off the top of the general allocation, $9.5 million
is left in FY 2002 of which $2.1 million has been earmarked toward the
plan's seven priorities.
The remaining $7.4 million will be placed
in the President's Discretionary Fund. According to the plan, the administration
intends to allocate all of that money to Tier One-related
programs in FY 2002.
Provost Edward Sheridan, Vice President
for Research Arthur Vailus, Vice President for Administration and Finance
Randy Harris, and Vice President for Information Technology
Charles Shomper will develop a plan for
allocating the Tier One funds in the fall.
A possible setback in the allocation of
the Tier One funds is the recent sharp increase in utilities costs, which
severely impacted UH during the last year. In FY 2002, the Legislature
allocated $13.2 million to UH for utilities
costs, but the administration anticipates that the actual costs may exceed
$15.3 million. The $2.1 million shortfall was covered by the
University's savings and earnings from
investments, but administrators are unsure whether they will be able to
do the same next year, or what next year's shortfall may be.
And then there was Tropical Storm Allison.
While total costs may not be calculated for months, current estimates stand
at $260 million. While UH has some insurance and expects
to receive restitution from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, the Administration anticipates that some of
its new funding will have to be spent for recovery purposes.
The University has already spent $919,403
in funds allocated from the Higher Education Assistance Fund for flood
recovery purposes, with an additional $27,307,100 in HEAF
funds set aside for FY 2002.
HEAF is a special education fund of $100
million, which benefits 26 state-supported universities (including the
four UHS branches), set aside annually by the Legislature and
unrelated to the general allocation funds.
During the meeting, Regent Suzette Caldwell,
president and CEO of TC Consulting Group, an environmental consulting company,
pointedly asked if administrators were working
on creating contingency plans for another
Allison-sized disaster.
Smith assured her that the administration
was going through a "very intense process" to determine needed changes,
in particular relocating the campus's major information
technology nodes from basement levels.
Associate Vice President for Plant Operations
David Irwin gave a PowerPoint presentation on the devastation Allison caused
to UH and the ongoing recovery efforts.
In other business during the meeting, Vice
President for Information Technology Charles Shomper gave a presentation
on the implementation of the PeopleSoft project, a UHSwide
computer-based project that will encompass
the System's financial, student and academic administrative, and human
resources functions.
