Sent Friday, March 18, 2005 3:01 pm
To cols@lists.uwosh.edu
Subject [Cols] budget proposal 2005-2006
Colleagues,
Below I will append a copy of the memo I just sent to Vice Chancellor and Provost Earns transmitting the College's budget proposal for next year. Because of formatting difficulties, I've not appended the tables. If you would like to see them, please let me know - or contact your chair or a member of the Faculty Committee.
If you have any questions, I will be happy to attempt to answer them. As you will see from the memo, the situation looks very grim.
Michael
Office of the Dean
College of Letters and Science
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901
To: Lane Earns Date: 18 March 2005
Vice Chancellor and Provost
From: Michael Zimmerman Re: 2005-2006 Budget
Dean
As requested, I am taking this opportunity to provide you with the College of Letters and Scienceís proposed budget for academic year 2005-2006. As has been the case for many years, the budget and, more importantly, the principles underlying it, are congruent with the academic priorities set forth by the University in its abridged select mission statement as well as in the document outlining the Universityís vision, six sets of core values and five strategic plans.
As you requested, and as has been the Collegeís practice for the past 12 years, our proposed budget has received the benefit of broad consultation. In addition to extensive input from the Collegeís two associate deans, all chairs and program directors had an opportunity to review their staffing profiles and gateway commitments and to propose adjustments. Three informational sessions were held with the Collegeís Faculty Committee to discuss both specific budgetary principles and specific budgetary items. Additionally, the budget has been a topic for discussion at two L&S Council meetings. Finally, I made a presentation on the budget and took questions from the floor at the Collegeís first ever faculty and academic staff meeting.
Simply put, and without using any hyperbolic language, the Collegeís budgetary situation can be described as a crisis. The budget we are proposing, as directed, includes a four percent ($777,320) base budget reduction and a one-half of one percent ($97,165) giveback to your office. Additionally, again as directed, the College has increased the amount of money projected to be spent on summer school. Indeed, we have committed 213 percent ($113,000) of last yearís summer school expenditures to course offerings this year. The College has also been asked to pay for salary equity adjustments for academic staff, promotion raises for both faculty and academic staff, and the cost of any classified staff reclassification raises; items that previously had been covered centrally. Finally, there will no longer be a central pool of money to be used for faculty computer replacements. These changes have not occurred in a vacuum. As you know, the Governor took approximately 30 percent of our auxiliary budgets last year, leaving us significantly reduced flexibility, and the on-campus formula for the distribution of overhead funds from grants has reduced the Collegeís share from 50
percent to 40 percent.
Despite all of these cuts, the College has again committed to deliver the same number of seats in critical gateway courses that we did for the last two years. Indeed, two years ago, the College increased the number of gateway seats offered after negotiations with then Vice Chancellor and Provost Keith Miller. At that time the Collegeís base budget was increased to cover the cost of these additional sections. Table 1 provides a full listing of the gateway courses we are guaranteeing. Maintaining these seats in the face of continuing budget cuts is beginning to pose a huge burden on the Collegeís departments and programs. Because the Collegeís supplies and expense budget isnít large enough to cover all of the cuts weíre facing, some ad hoc academic staff lines must be cut. Since we are continuing to preserve gateway seats, the cuts must come from the upper level offerings of departments and programs. (Most of our gateway courses are already larger than is pedagogically sound and typically at room capacity so simply increasing class size is not an option.) These cuts mean that students will have dramatically fewer course options from which to choose. In some cases, it is possible that students will find it more difficult to graduate in a timely fashion. Across the College, we are planning not to fill academic staff lines equivalent to 52 three-credit courses.
I hasten to add a couple of words about gateway courses. Although the College is promising to offer the same number of seats we have offered each year for the past 12 years, plus the additional seats we promised as of the 2003-2004 academic year, these seats are not likely to be sufficient, depending upon enrollment and retention. Then Provost and Vice Chancellor Miller agreed that the College of Letters and Science budget was designed to provide seats for up to 1,650 incoming first year students and 650 transfer students. Unfortunately, from the perspective of seats in classes, the University has been admitting significantly more students than this. In fact, approximately 15 percent additional students enrolled in each of the past two fall semesters, and your office provided additional funding to help cover the cost of the sections needed for these additional students. If this additional funding is not forthcoming, the College will not be able to increase the number of seats provided beyond what is promised in Table 1. Additionally, because of the large number of admitted students, increasing pressure is being placed on many 200-level courses, particularly in Biology and English. Unless some budgetary relief is provided, a significant student backlog is likely to begin to appear.
As grim as this is, this was the good news. Consider the fact that even after cutting the academic staff lines mentioned above, the Collegeís proposed personnel budget for next year ($18,048,197) comprises approximately 97 percent of our budget. The remaining three percent of our budget ($607,471) must cover the operating costs for all departments and programs, faculty and staff recruitment, permanent property, faculty travel and computer replacements. Youíll immediately get a sense of the magnitude of
the problem when you realize that the current operating budgets of departments and programs total $735,161 or approximately 121 percent of what the College has available. In an attempt to make the best of an utterly miserable situation, the College has cut the operating budgets of departments and programs for next year by 20 percent. Table 2 shows the distribution of these cuts. These cuts are going to make it very difficult for departments and programs to function, especially when you remember that the College has not received any additions to our supply and expense budget lines for well over a decade, perhaps over two decades. After reducing department and program budgets by 20 percent, the College has a total of $19,243 remaining. Last year,the College had $391,054 available, meaning that we have experienced a budget reduction of approximately 95 percent. Some of these funds have to be used to support the operation of the Deanís Office. As Table 3 shows, the Deanís Office will experience a 25 percent budget reduction, leaving just $4,342 for all other College expenses. Prior commitments to faculty members hired this year for next will consume all of those funds. The bottom line is that the College:
* Will not be able to institute any tenure track searches this coming year;
* Will not be able to replace or repair aging or broken computers;
* Will not be able to purchase new permanent property; and
* Will not be able to repair or replace aging or broken permanent property.
The dire consequences associated with most of these actions are self-explanatory. What might not be quite so obvious, however, is the situation with tenure track faculty lines in the College. Due to budgetary constraints, the College has been able to initiate only approximately one-third of the faculty searches we would normally begin. When looked at collectively, the College currently has approximately 30 faculty positions that will be vacant next year. This represents approximately 11 percent of the faculty. Additionally, it is likely that by this time next year an additional 8 to 10 positions will become vacant bringing us to a vacancy rate approaching 15 percent. This is not a stable situation.
While the College has not budgeted any money for faculty and staff travel to professional conferences, I believe that doing so is essential. The College will, therefore, use two sources of funding to continue to provide $1,000 per full-time faculty or staff member: College auxiliary funds and salary savings. Salary savings will also be used to cover the $97,165 we owe to you.
In addition to making the cuts outlined above, the College is also in the process of attempting to save money. The College currently has 1.75 FTE of program assistant positions vacant and discussions exploring ways to keep those positions vacant while
minimizing the impact on the instructional mission of the College are underway. Additionally, I have reduced the size of the program assistant staff in the Deanís Office by 0.25 FTE, or by approximately 14 percent, effective immediately. I have also removed a full FTE that had been devoted to fundraising.
The budget I have proposed is not stable over the long term. From the present year to next year, we will have gone from having 94 percent of the College budget spent on salaries to having 97 percent spent on salaries ñ while dramatically reducing the percentage of faculty positions actually filled by faculty members. This cannibalization of supply lines cannot continue. Imagine the impact on teaching and research if we fail to replace any equipment in the College.
The College of Letters and Science is also responsible for two ancillary operations: the Cooperative Academic Partnership Program (CAPP) and the University Honors Program. Their budgets, along with explanatory text, are attached. Given that CAPP makes no use of GPR funding, I have not asked the Program to reduce its budget. To do so would be foolish because CAPP actually makes money for the University. Any cuts in the CAPP budget would likely translate fairly directly into reduced offerings and thus smaller profits. The Honors situation is dramatically different. The budget submitted reflects a 4.5 percent reduction and it is obvious that the cuts proposed will directly impact the quality of the program. Additionally, if the 0.5 FTE of secretarial assistance that has been provided in addition to the Programís base this year were to be removed, the Program would no longer be able to function as it currently does; a fairly rigid cap on enrollment would have to be put in place. I do hope resolution of this issue can be reached relatively soon. If a cap were needed to be imposed, the impact of such a drastic action would be somewhat ameliorated if it were done sooner rather than later.
I do hope that my narrative and its accompanying staffing checkbooks are clear and complete. As always, if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them.
cc: Chancellor Richard Wells
Faculty Committee
Chairs, Program Directors
Associate Deans
COLS Electronic Bulletin Board
Lori Worm
Rose Ziebert
Michael Zimmerman
Office of the Dean
College of Letters and Science
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901
(920) 424-1210
mz@uwosh.edu
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