Spring Break
Straayer: budget doesn't place enough emphasis on academics
Aaron Hedge
Issue date: 7/23/08 Section: News
The CSU budget for fiscal year 2008, which allocates a little over $1 million of new revenue to faculty expansion, has drawn scrutiny from faculty for placing too much emphasis on research and non-academic stretch goals, while not shoring up the academic guts of the university sufficiently.
One professor said that in the tight fiscal environment that has plagued the Colorado higher education system for nearly a decade, CSU's financial focus should be on hiring new tenure and tenure-track faculty members.
The $1.14 million set aside for bringing in 10 new faculty positions is slightly less than 10 percent of the 11.6 million the budget funnels to university stretch goals, which also include expanding athletics and financial aid.
Of the new money, students are paying for more than two-thirds. The budget, approved July 1 by the CSU System Board of Governors, allows for a $384 tuition hike, a 9.5 percent increase from last year, which brings the annual burden to $4,424 per student.
Since 2003, tuition at CSU has increased more than $1,700, or 66 percent, while the majority of the new money is going to increases in administrative costs, according to university-published documents.
But Provost Tony Frank, who says the university sets faculty expansion and academics at the highest priority level, points out that since 2003 faculty has grown about 80 positions, or about nine percent, which is a much higher growth rate than the prior decade.
"If the assumption is that we don't place enough emphasis on faculty expansion, … I don't think the facts support that," Frank said in a telephone interview with the Collegian.
Frank noted in an e-mail message that the university is more than keeping up with the growth of the student population over the last three years, adding about 10 percent to the tenure and tenure-track faculty base, while the student population has only increased one tenth of a percent over the same time period.
One professor said that in the tight fiscal environment that has plagued the Colorado higher education system for nearly a decade, CSU's financial focus should be on hiring new tenure and tenure-track faculty members.
The $1.14 million set aside for bringing in 10 new faculty positions is slightly less than 10 percent of the 11.6 million the budget funnels to university stretch goals, which also include expanding athletics and financial aid.
Of the new money, students are paying for more than two-thirds. The budget, approved July 1 by the CSU System Board of Governors, allows for a $384 tuition hike, a 9.5 percent increase from last year, which brings the annual burden to $4,424 per student.
Since 2003, tuition at CSU has increased more than $1,700, or 66 percent, while the majority of the new money is going to increases in administrative costs, according to university-published documents.
But Provost Tony Frank, who says the university sets faculty expansion and academics at the highest priority level, points out that since 2003 faculty has grown about 80 positions, or about nine percent, which is a much higher growth rate than the prior decade.
"If the assumption is that we don't place enough emphasis on faculty expansion, … I don't think the facts support that," Frank said in a telephone interview with the Collegian.
Frank noted in an e-mail message that the university is more than keeping up with the growth of the student population over the last three years, adding about 10 percent to the tenure and tenure-track faculty base, while the student population has only increased one tenth of a percent over the same time period.
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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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