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Budget principles should mitigate state cuts
To the Editor:
The newspapers have been full of reports that New York State is facing a large deficit for the coming year, and that SUNY's budget will undoubtedly be cut. Naturally in these circumstances, rumors abound concerning how UB—and particularly the budgets of the various schools and departments—will be affected, with much worry about the potential impact of cuts on faculty hiring and other priorities for improvement at UB.
The Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee, which meets regularly with the provost to discuss budget-related matters, would like to remind the university community of the budget principles in place on this campus. These principles have worked this year to mitigate the impact of budget cuts on our academic mission, and will work to mitigate the effects of any future cuts as well.
First some facts: For the current budget year, negotiated salary increases for faculty and staff were not funded by the state. In addition, in July, there was a 1 percent cut in state tax going to the campuses. Recently, a 5 percent cut was announced for this fiscal year, which translates to a 2.5 percent cut for the last half of the budget year.
How do these budget cuts impact the 13 academic units on this campus? In the budget system that has been in operation here for the past two years, each academic unit has a base budget, and can augment its budget in three ways: (1) the tuition from increased enrollments is shared equally between the academic unit and the Provost's Office, (2) the unit receives 12 percent of recovered indirect costs from grant activity and (3) the unit keeps 90 percent of revenue generated from non-degree programs it offers.
The Provost's Office uses its share of the tuition from increased enrollments to fund programs that further the overall mission of the university. In the past year, this money has been used almost exclusively to cushion the impact of budget cuts on the academic units. The Provost's Office funded all of the negotiated salary increases for this year, with no impact on unit budgets. Because of this drain on resources, July's 1 percent cut was shared across-the-board. However, UB's enrollments rose significantly this year, increasing available resources. Therefore, the provost was able to cover half of the most recent budget cut. The remainder was allocated to those units that did not contribute to enrollment increases, in proportion to their base budget. The impact was minimal, averaging 1.07 percent of base budget.
Undoubtedly, SUNY will experience additional budget cuts for the coming fiscal year. However, with the current budget system at UB, we can expect that the impact on our academic programs will be much less than in the past. In addition, the deans have the flexibility to generate additional revenue to compensate for state tax reductions. As representatives of the university, we need to be aware that our budget system and our ability to increase revenue will allow us to continue to develop excellence at UB, despite state budget difficulties.
Susan Hamlen
Chair, Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee
Associate Professor,
Department of Accounting and Law,
School of Management