The final phase of ASUI President Samantha Perez’s department audit and student fee proposal took place Thursday with a presentation from University of Idaho Provost Doug Baker and Executive Director of Planning and Budget Keith Ickes.
Perez said the purpose of the forum was to receive student feedback about where their dollars are going and the proposed 6.1 percent tuition increase for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Perez said she was let down by the student turnout and was hoping for more feedback from students.
“I was a little disappointed with the turnout of students,” Perez said. “We only had about 20 and I was hoping for at least 100, but I was very pleased with the administration’s message and I thought it was great that they took the time to come and explain to students the budget situation and proposed tuition increase.”
The presentation broke down UI’s general education budget
and Ickes and Baker explained where each dollar students pay in tuition and fees is going within the university.
For the current fiscal year, the university’s general education budget is $144.4 million dollars. Forty-nine percent of the budget is funded by the state and 47 percent by student tuition and fees. The remaining four percent comes from land grant endowments.
That budget funds all aspects of the university with the exception of housing, which is considered a separate entity and not funded by tuition and fees.
Salary and benefits for university employees make up 71 percent of the budgeted general education expenditures. University operating costs make up an additional 26 percent and capital outlay — all purchases costing more than $5,000 — makes up the final 3 percent in university expenditures.
Ickes said for FY2013, there is $11.3 million in designated challenges that the university hopes to make up for with increased revenue from the state and the 6.1 percent increase to student tuition.
Among the challenges is a 2 percent increase in Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) funding as approved by the State Board of Education. The state has said it will provide 60 percent of this increase and the additional $4.3 million will be funded by the university.
Additionally, Ickes said the university will need $2.1 million for required increases such as utilities, promotions, contracts and library inflation.
Ickes said $1.3 million is needed for a “Moving the University Forward” budget that includes new faculty positions and classroom repairs to improve the quality of the university.
The final challenge known as “unfunded state obligations” would require an additional $3.6 million budget.
Ickes said new revenue for FY2013 is expected to total $7.3 million with $3.7 million raised from the tuition increase and $3.6 million in new state funding. Ickes said these numbers are based on a zero percent increase in enrollment
“For the math crit people, you know the total we need is $11.3 million,” Ickes said. “So how do we make up for only $7.3 million in increased revenues?”
Ickes explained how the university has determined it will deal with the challenges of this financial deficit.
“Salaries and benefits — we need $4.3 million. We’re proposing the state will put in about $2.1 million from the new funding and $1.8 million from the tuition revenues,” Ickes said.
This would leave a $40,000 deficit in the budget for salaries and benefits. Ickes said the university has yet to find a way to make up for this.
“You can’t fill all the holes,” Ickes said.
Ickes said for required increases, $0.6 million of the needed $2.1 million will come from student tuition revenues and $1.5 million in state funding. He said the library will receive a “bare-bone” $350,000 budget from student tuition.
“The library has no budget to buy books. If you’re a research library that’s not a good thing,” Ickes said. “I essentially said (students’) contribution to this would be that you’re helping out with the library, it’s a way of saying that there’s something here that we could identify that student fees can help out with that will benefit them. It’s a little better than making students help out with the electrical bill.”
Finally, Ickes said the $1.3 million budget for moving the university forward would be entirely funded by the remaining $1.3 million in tuition revenues.
Ickes said the remaining $4.0 million — $3.6 million in unfunded obligations and $40,000 in salary deficit — will be the remaining challenge. He said reallocated funds that are already stretched thin will make up for this deficit and that students could see an increase in special course fees that the university can no longer pay for.
The final portion of the open forum presentation included a discussion of Perez’s proposed zero percent increase to the dedicated student activity fee. Perez was able to propose the zero percent increase after an audit of student fee funded departments showed unused funds that ASUI reallocated to other departments.
Perez said this proposal will help the university because the only increase to the amount students pay each year will be in tuition. This allows more flexibility in the use of the money paid by students. Perez said that while student fees are specific to the department they are used for, tuition is not.
“There are about 25 departments that receive partial funding from the student activity fee,” Perez said. “All of these fees are benefitting students and they are the fees that students have a direct say over what gets allocated where.”
Perez and Ickes agreed that students should be aware of the ways their tuition and fees are helping the university.
“I think it’s useful sometimes for students to see the pie charts,” Ickes said. “Everything hinges around the fact that the general education fund is working right. It’s important to know that that’s where your tuition dollars are going to help out.”
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]