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NEWS
| AUGUST 31, 2005
UT System
UTA budget up 7.5 percent
Most of the budget comes from
a 21 percent increase in grants and contracts.
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| The Shorthorn: Alex Pierce |
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By Elaine
Marsilio
The Shorthorn Staff
Students may notice the almost 70 additional faculty on campus this
fall, thanks to about $2.6 million for new faculty salaries in the
2006 fiscal year budget, according to budget documents and Provost
Dana Dunn’s staff.
About 50 of the 70 faculty were hired into these new tenure positions
or replaced faculty who left. The administration aimed to hire 35
tenure-stream faculty for these positions. Unfilled positions within
the 35 will roll over into next year’s search, Dunn said.
In addition to hiring faculty, the budget includes funds for a 3
percent merit pool based on performance for existing faculty and
staff and an expected 21 percent increase in the grants and contracts
funds, mainly for faculty research. There is also an expected 8
percent increase in the auxiliary funds, which includes the Housing
Office, the health center, UTA Police Department and athletics.
“We’re fortunate that we were able to add faculty positions
and to have what I would consider to be a very modest merit increase,”
Dunn said. “We all know that this is a time of constrained
resources and that the state of Texas was not able to increase its
contribution to higher education in a significant way. At the same
time, it’s clear to me that more resources are needed.”
The UT System Board of Regents approved UTA’s nearly $334
million operating budget Aug. 11 as part of the $9.6 billion system
operating budget, which takes effect Thursday. UTA’s budget
increased about 7.5 percent from last year.
Rusty Ward, vice
president for business affairs and controller, said the increase
wasn’t as much as last year’s 16.5 percent rise because
administrators anticipate enrollment to be fairly similar to academic
year 2004-05, about 26,000. He said the almost 5 percent tuition
increase for 2006, a decision that came out of the fall 2004 Tuition
Review Committee, is not particularly large.
Ward said that even though the university received about $84.8 million
from the Legislature, more was preferred. He said the university
also needed tuition revenue bonds, which were not awarded by the
Legislature, to build a new engineering teaching and research building.
The bulk of the budget’s overall 7.5 percent increase comes
from the anticipated 21 percent jump in grants and contracts, Ward
said. Dunn said these grants are essential for faculty to stay active
in research with the expectation that their discoveries will be
published and taught by faculty nationwide.
“And that’s why it’s important to students,”
she said.
Faculty Senate Chair Dennis Reinhartz said the university faculty
appreciates the 3 percent merit pool but said that it’s not
enough to keep salaries competitive at the national level.
“I certainly would welcome any raise that any faculty member
gets, and I’m sure we all do. Three percent is really minimal.
It is below minimal,” Reinhartz said. “In other words,
it barely keeps you [at the national level], if that.”
Dunn said the university administration has previously studied faculty
salaries and fully understands the issue, and to complement the
merit pool, the university has allocated about $1 million in development
and research bonuses.
“We’re doing everything we can within reason to address
that. We will continue to make salaries a top priority,” Dunn
said. “We are working as hard as we can to make progress,
and we will continue to do so.”
The 8 percent increase in auxiliary funds has a majority going to
the Housing Office because of increased housing revenues due to
the opening of the Meadow Run Phase II apartments, Ward said. Housing
makes up about a third of the total expenditures for auxiliary enterprises.
Wyl Parker, University Center director and assistant vice president
for management services and housing, said that although the majority
of the 8 percent is expected for housing, it does not mean rates
increased by that same number in the residence halls and university-owned
apartments. For example, a regular double-occupancy room in Kalpana
Chawla Hall increased 1.82 percent and a double super-occupancy
room increased 2.11 percent.
“The students have not seen an 8 percent increase on their
rent,” he said.
CORRECTION
This story should have stated that each university
system in Texas will have one student regent and applications for
the UT System student regent.
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