Faculty gets the big picture
Greiner reports to FSEC on future budget and priorities

By MARA McGINNIS
Reporter Assistant Editor

"Re-establishing the primacy of our research and graduate-education mission" is an "urgent priority" for the university, President William R. Greiner told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its April 26 meeting.

In a presentation designed to provide faculty with a "big-picture" overview of the status of the university and to review the key financial issues of the last decade, Greiner explained some of the priorities driving recent financial decisions and said he was optimistic about the 2000-2001 projected budget.

Greiner told FSEC members that the projected budget would increase UB's budget by $12.3 million over last year's to give the university a total appropriation of $246.7 million for 2000-2001. This increase would be made up of a $5.3 million increase in state tax support and $7 million in additional revenue generated by the university. He said he hopes the the spending plan and allocations will be approved before the fiscal year begins July 1.

The projected budget would fund fully faculty and staff salary increases, while offering a modest growth in tax support, said Greiner. He added that the budget would allow the university to begin efforts to reduce existing structural imbalances by eliminating the savings factor previously required of all units.

Greiner noted that to re-establish research and graduate-education missions, the university will have to focus on quality-rather than the quantity-when it comes to doctoral programs, and focus on increasing sponsored-program funding and increasing enrollment in master's-degree programs.

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, told Greiner that he agreed with the initiative to increase sponsored programs, but asked how it was possible without hiring new "bright-eyed, bushy-tailed faculty."

"It can't all be done with new faculty," said Greiner, adding that the university must generate investment funds to achieve budget stability.

He also outlined some key issues about the financial realities that have faced the university in the last 10 years, beginning with the change in the SUNY and UB revenue mix. He explained that in 1988-89, tuition made up 9 percent of SUNY's revenue, while tax support counted for 53 percent. But by 1998-99-10 years later-tax support had decreased to 34 percent, while tuition revenue increased to 12 percent, which, Greiner said, shows how student funding of the operating costs of the campus has increased.

Using graphs, Greiner also explained that faculty FTE growth has followed the changes in enrollment. He showed that in 1994, the student/faculty ratio was about 13.38 and that it increased to 13.92 in 1999. However, the total number of faculty has declined slightly in that time, from 1,583 to 1,537.

He also touched on the changing faculty mix, showing a significant increase in non-tenure-track faculty compared to a decreasing number of tenured and tenure-track faculty since 1996-a trend, he noted, that is not unique to UB. He also demonstrated that in the past 10 years, the only two units that have seen an increase in faculty FTE are the Law School and the School of Social Work. Every other unit has lost between zero and 93 faculty members. The College of Arts and Sciences, according to the chart, declined by a total of 17 faculty FTE between 1989 and 1999, while the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is down 93.

He also indicated that the university overall has hired a total of 603 new tenured or tenure-track faculty members since 1989.

Greiner noted some strategic investments in the past decade made possible due to the state capital-program initiatives. Among these are the Center for the Arts, Biomedical Research Building, Natural Sciences Complex, new faculty research set-ups, Mathematics Building, Center for Computational Research, 43 technology-equipped classrooms, the cybraries, and the Toshiba Stroke Research Center.