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Straayer: budget doesn't place enough emphasis on academics
Aaron Hedge
Issue date: 7/23/08 Section: News
But political science professor John Straayer remains critical, saying that the expansion is tepid at best. While Straayer said he believes CSU must stay true to its identity as a research institution, more cash flow to academia is paramount in keeping a CSU degree competitive.
Straayer said that, while the student population has increased by nearly 250 classroom seats over the last five years, the budget moves too little of new revenue, which is largely supplied by student pocketbooks, into faculty expansion.
Tim Gallagher, the Faculty Council representative to the BOG, said that, while the problem is real, the university cannot do much about it because of Colorado's tight financial situation that plagues university officials and state legislators.
"It boils down to the fact that the legislators only had so much money," Gallagher said in a phone interview.
Since 2003, funding for academics, including faculty pay, academic colleges and library costs, has increased 43 percent. But at the same time, funding for increases in administrative costs has more than doubled in the last five years, according to university budget records.
And Straayer says it's not clear what exactly that money pays for.
"Not only in any single year, but as a pattern … if there is more money coming from students, where is the money going? What are they purchasing?" Straayer said.
Frank said the items under administrative costs are numerous, and many of them are invisible to the student body and faculty members. Administrative staff, he said, ranges from the guy sitting at a desk on the top floor of the Administration Building to the woman pushing a vacuum cleaner in the Lory Student Center at 2 a.m.
And the administration draws a total of 3.7 percent of the university's expenditures, which Frank says is more than 30 percent less than CSU's peers.
A total of $39.2 million of new revenue was approved by the CSU System Board of Governors. Most -- $27.5 million -- of the new money will go to mandatory costs, such as salary increases and debt service.
And he points out that, according to the university fact book published at www.ir.colostate.edu, the rate of administrative funding growth at CSU was five times the rate of growth in academics.
News Managing Editor Aaron Hedge can be reached at news@collegian.com.
Straayer said that, while the student population has increased by nearly 250 classroom seats over the last five years, the budget moves too little of new revenue, which is largely supplied by student pocketbooks, into faculty expansion.
Tim Gallagher, the Faculty Council representative to the BOG, said that, while the problem is real, the university cannot do much about it because of Colorado's tight financial situation that plagues university officials and state legislators.
"It boils down to the fact that the legislators only had so much money," Gallagher said in a phone interview.
Since 2003, funding for academics, including faculty pay, academic colleges and library costs, has increased 43 percent. But at the same time, funding for increases in administrative costs has more than doubled in the last five years, according to university budget records.
And Straayer says it's not clear what exactly that money pays for.
"Not only in any single year, but as a pattern … if there is more money coming from students, where is the money going? What are they purchasing?" Straayer said.
Frank said the items under administrative costs are numerous, and many of them are invisible to the student body and faculty members. Administrative staff, he said, ranges from the guy sitting at a desk on the top floor of the Administration Building to the woman pushing a vacuum cleaner in the Lory Student Center at 2 a.m.
And the administration draws a total of 3.7 percent of the university's expenditures, which Frank says is more than 30 percent less than CSU's peers.
A total of $39.2 million of new revenue was approved by the CSU System Board of Governors. Most -- $27.5 million -- of the new money will go to mandatory costs, such as salary increases and debt service.
And he points out that, according to the university fact book published at www.ir.colostate.edu, the rate of administrative funding growth at CSU was five times the rate of growth in academics.
News Managing Editor Aaron Hedge can be reached at news@collegian.com.
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Alex
posted 3/04/09 @ 2:41 PM MST
Seven ways of stealing from budget
3. "Layer".
Nobody writes and talks about it, but such things happen. Some big state company ordered the equipment abroad. (Continued…)
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