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UB dodges budget bullet, Capaldi tells FSEC
By DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor
Increased enrollment, more research activity and revenue from the expanded summer session all have helped UB dodge the budget bullet for 2003-04, Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi reported at yesterday's Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting.
Capaldi released a draft budget summary outlining UB's current budget situation and how the university is coping with increased expenses, such as the SUNY-wide tuition increase that has caused gaps in scholarship funding, as well as mandated collective bargaining increases.
Although reduced tax receipts prompted the state to cut the base budget of all state agencies, including SUNY, system administration reallocated funding within the system to ensure that all campuses maintained the same state operating budget as last year, the summary said, so UB will receive $283 million in state-operating funds.
Although the first SUNY-wide tuition increase in seven years generated an additional $29 million at UB, Capaldi noted that 2003-04 expenses include $2.9 million in salary increases, increases in utility costs of about $2.4 million and general cost increases due to inflation. The gaps in scholarship funding total $4.5 million at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
"Fortunately, higher yields and increased retention have resulted in enrollments that are above our original plan. The tuition and fees from these additional students will help to balance the UB financial plan," the summary states.
Moreover, "Increased research activity has generated additional indirect cost-recovery funds, and both the UB Foundation and the Faculty Student Association have increased contributions to UB's financial plan. Finally, the expanded summer session program has also produced additional revenue. Through financing obtained from these and other sources, the Provost's Office was able to absorb all the increased costs, with the exception of approximately 25 percent of the increased tuition-scholarship amounts.
"Therefore, no academic unit received a base budget cut in a very difficult budget year and faculty hiring was not affected," the summary continued.
Capaldi said that she hopes earnings from summer programs, which netted the university $500,000 this year, would create an additional $2 million to $2.4 million in the coming year.
"We have a lot more students, but not a lot more money proportionately," said Capaldi. "It's a little complicated-students are paying more for the university; SUNY has shifted the burden to the students."
Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson credited Capaldi with engaging in creative financial management during her time as provost. "It's important to recognize that budgets at the dean's level have had predictability for the past three years," noted Nickerson, professor of pathology.
Capaldi encouraged the deans to spend their budgets: "If you don't spend the money, it's a waste—you don't get faculty and programs."
In other business, Kevin Seitz, vice president for university services, and Voldemar Innus, vice president and chief information officer, updated the FSEC on recent progress in the offices of the CIO and the Research Foundation to improve Oasis, an Oracle-based, financial-and-grant-management program used by the Research Foundation that has developed a notorious reputation due to its operational problems over the past couple of years.
UB has "spent the last three years trying to stabilize the system," said Seitz. "The system itself needed major enhancements and we couldn't wait for Oracle to do it," he added.
Two improvements that should be up and running by February include payroll-encumbering and principal investigator (PI) award interface, said Seitz, which should improve the accuracy of balances, with encumbering being done on a nightly basis.
"If we had to do it all over again, we wouldn't do the 'big bang' approach," regarding the way Oasis was implemented, said Innus.
Lilliam Malave, associate professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction in the Graduate School of Education, and acting director of the Urban Education Institute, voiced frustration over the improvements, calling Oasis a nightmare. "I've spent so much time trying to figure out the improvements. The product isn't' any better and isn't going to get any better," she said. "I can't even read the reports."
"I agree with you, said Innus, "until we get those next two items done."
Added John Ho, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics: "From the PI's point of view, expectations are very low. We just want to see a flicker at the end of the tunnel."
Also at yesterday's meeting, the FSEC voted unanimously to approve changing the name of the Department of Chemical Engineering to the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The name change reflects current research and will make the department more competitive for federal funding, said FSEC member James N. Jensen, associate professor of civil engineering who indicated there is wide support for the name change within the department.