News
Budget woes focus of FSEC meeting
Meetings of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee this year will have three main topics of discussion: budget, budget and more budget, senate chair Robert Hoeing told committee members yesterday during the group’s first meeting of the 2008-09 academic year.
Hoeing, associate professor of linguistics, was reacting to action taken earlier this year by the state that is having a dramatic impact on UB. Funding to SUNY was cut by 2.9 percent this spring, then another 0.4 percent a month later. This summer, SUNY, CUNY and other state agencies were hit with an additional 7 percent cut.
Altogether, this equals a 10.3 percent—or approximately $21 million—cut in state funds to UB, said Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
“If you think about the average salary of staff and faculty [as being] about $50,000-60,000, you’re talking about 300-400 people,” Tripathi said. “Of course, not all money is being taken from salaries, but that’s just to help you think about the impact of this size cut.”
The scope of the reduction means an across-the-board cut to all units’ budgets is no longer a viable solution, he added.
“For the first stage of cuts, we really just did an across-the-board, 3 percent cut,” said Tripathi, noting that since revenue from tuition was not affected by the drop in state funding, the across-the-board reduction resulted in enough extra cash to return some funds to some units and invest the remainder. But, “at 7 percent on top of that…you can’t really follow the same philosophy,” he said.
A University-Wide Strategic Financial Management Advisory Group made up of seven faculty members, four staff members and two students has been established to help UB weather the crisis, he said. The members of this panel are thinking in the long term, including making investments that could yield future savings and cultivating alternative sources of revenue. The goal, he said, is to ensure that UB continues to meet its core values of service, education and research, despite the current economic climate.
In his report to the FSEC, President John B. Simpson talked about the search for a new chancellor for SUNY. Simpson, who is a member of the search committee, said the search has “gone on far too long” at a time when SUNY needs strong representation in Albany. The committee will meet next in early October, after which he vowed to again update senators on the situation.
In other business, Jason Adsit, new director of the Teaching & Learning Center, spoke to senators about the various services his office provides to help faculty members improve their performance as educators, including supporting instructional technology and faculty professional development.
“We’re here for you,” he said. “We’re here to help lessen some of the burden that you have as you prepare for your courses, as you do research on new and effective pedagogies, and when you try to innovate and try something new in teaching and learning.”
Reader Comments