August 6, 2003
Dear Colleagues,
The FY 2003-2004 budget has just been completed and is at the University of Louisiana System Office for review and approval. Just like last year, the budget has been placed online, and can be found at www.ulm.edu/04budget/. As you review the budget, remember that you must look past the summaries and analyze the individual departments. Several very important developments in this year's budget are described in the remainder of the letter.
As I relayed to you in an earlier letter discussing the legislative session, we did very well in Baton Rouge this year. Our success can be attributed to several individuals. First, of course, is our northeastern Louisiana Legislative Delegation. Many of you have already thanked them in letters and e-mail, and I can assure you they were appreciative of that recognition. In addition, Dr. Clausen and the Board of Supervisors went to bat for us before, during, and after the session. Without the work of Dr. Clausen we would probably be cutting positions right now instead of adding back needed faculty and staff. Significant credit also goes to Keith Brown, the Director of Federal, State and Community Relations for ULM. He worked tirelessly in his efforts to make sure our requests were heard and funded.
ULM received an increase in state appropriations of $2,200,678 - up 5.37% from last year. These funds are sufficient to cover a majority of the mandated increases for Civil Service merit raises and adjustments,
Group Benefit premium increases, retirement contribution increases, and increases in Risk Management costs (increases in the costs of insurance). These mandated increases will cost us $1,779,883.
In addition, ULM received $1,500,000 for the School of Pharmacy. These funds are restricted to the School of Pharmacy and will be used to meet required accreditation costs, including sufficient clinical pharmacists
to provide the necessary clinical rotations for our current class. I hope that everyone appreciates that these funds will significantly reduce the stress that the implementation of the Pharm.D. program had on the remainder of our budget.
Included in revenue for FY 2004 is the new Academic Enhancement Fee. This fee was supported by our students and can be used for limited academic purposes, including new faculty positions, salary increases for faculty, and development of "smart" classrooms.
The University of Louisiana System also approved a three percent (3%) increase in tuition for this academic year. However, continuing our policy of conservative revenue projections, we are estimating that tuition revenue will show no increase for FY 2003-2004.
The FY 2004 budget had to be crafted very carefully considering the limitations placed on the new revenue. We continued to place emphasis in those areas that would contribute most to our success such as instructional technology, recruitment and retention, student life, development, marketing, grounds and maintenance.
We budgeted for 28 new and reestablished positions in instruction. These positions included clinical pharmacists as well as positions in Radiologic Technology, Communicative Disorders, Art, History, Mathematics, English, and Education Leadership to name just a few departments.
In addition, to address the problem of instructional technology, we added four Computer Specialists. As part of our new retention effort we added a Director of Retention and three Academic Counselors in the CASS center. The budget adds a Training Coordinator and addresses human resource issues in Development, the Computing Center, Institutional Marketing, and Student Affairs - all areas that provide needed instructional and administrative support. In addition, we added resources to upgrade our computing facilities and to plan for increases in utility costs. Scholarship funds were increased by $400,000.
We still have a number of budget issues that will be addressed in future budgets. These include how we appropriately fund Graphic and Technical Services, continued reduction of attrition and shared costs to balance the budget. This budget represents significant progress in recognizing the problems associated with these areas, and it positions the University to make a quantum leap as we continue to increase our student population.
We very carefully considered the subject of salary increases for faculty and non-classified staff. We have built-in a contingency of $547,566 for salary increases, the use of which will be dependent entirely on student enrollment in the fall. The decision to grant merit increases will be delayed until final fall enrollment figures are determined. At the current time we are confident that we will see, if not an increase in enrollment, at the very minimum, a stable enrollment picture.
Based on the late enrollment propensity of Louisiana students, it is not too late to get on the phone and contact undecided students. We are currently making phone calls to students on a daily basis. If you would like to help, please contact Lisa Miller, and she will make sure you have a list of prospective students to call.
Our future is dependent on student enrollment increases. This year the Federal Government stepped in and saved higher education in Louisiana from a disastrous budget situation. Next year we may not be so lucky. Many of our sister states are currently experiencing serious financial difficulty. For instance, institutions in Missouri are declaring financial emergencies, suspending tenure rules, and eliminating academic programs and services. Louisiana is not out of the woods yet, and by all accounts the next legislative session will be difficult. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to embrace and participate in our recruiting and retention efforts.
I am looking forward to this new academic year. We start the year with a host of successes under our belt: final clearance by SACS, an improved financial picture, the largest one-year increase in student satisfaction of any institution in Louisiana, and a new spirit. I think we can do even better this year as we continue to work together.
James E. Cofer, Sr.
ULM President