April 29, 2010

Budget units outline their plans; Geoffroy presents university budget to regents

by Anne Krapfl

The state Board of Regents will get a first look at Iowa State's FY11 budget plans April 29 when it meets in Iowa City. President Gregory Geoffroy will outline a proposed university budget that contains nearly $20.4 million less state support than the university received on July 1, 2009, and $58.7 million less than on July 1, 2008.

Iowa State will rely on projected new tuition revenues ($21 million), a one-time state appropriation ($3.2 million) and increases in research indirect cost recovery and miscellaneous income ($400,000) to bring revenue levels back to approximately the July 2009 level. However, that revenue must fund a long list of increasing costs, including student financial aid ($6.4 million), employee insurance ($2.3 million), required compensation increases ($1.5 million) and library acquisitions ($770,000), among others.

Geoffroy's presentation will be posted on the president's web site Thursday morning. Coverage of the regents' budget discussion will be posted in Inside Iowa State later Thursday.

In building the FY11 budget, university leaders made permanent a $24.9 mid-year reduction to the FY10 budget. Iowa State's colleges, library, IT Services and vice presidential units were given reduction targets in late February and submitted their budget drafts by early April. Those plans included operations plans and personnel plans -- supplemental plans outlining specific changes to faculty, staff and graduate assistant positions. The personnel plans currently are being reviewed in human resource services to make sure that the proposed changes are consistent with policies and procedures for the respective employee groups.

Summarized below are highlights of what the units proposed to meet their reduction targets for the new year that begins July 1. Executive vice president and provost Elizabeth Hoffman has accepted the plans, pending regent approval of the university's proposed budget at the board's June 9 meeting.

Academic colleges

Agriculture and Life Sciences: $3,019,896

Reduce state funding for graduate assistant positions
Eliminate seven vacant faculty positions
Continue planning to merge the horticulture and ag education and studies departments
Consider a joint administrative structure for the entomology and natural resource ecology and management departments
Charge $100 special course fee to students for courses that use special facilities (such as farms, greenhouses)
Increase user fee 25 percent to researchers (faculty, scientists) with projects at ISU research farms

Business: $982,642

Revise the MBA curriculum (eliminates one FTE faculty position)
Eliminate the Saturday MBA program (year two of implementation), eliminates 1.5 FTE faculty positions
Merge two B.S. programs (logistics and supply chain management, and operations and supply chain management) into one: supply chain management (eliminates 2.5 FTE faculty positions)
Reduce graduate assistant positions

Design: $837,554

Reorganize department-level support and student support services into college-wide offices (likely would eliminate three staff positions)
Temporarily reorganize department administrative offices, eliminating chair positions, until a new structure is envisioned that will serve the college's future plans
Reduce budget for supplemental instruction, which reduces faculty/instructor positions from 94 FTEs to 77 FTEs
Reduce supplies/services budgets
Increase enrollments in some professional degree programs

Engineering: $2,307,425

Cut approximately $1 million by reorganizing units and reducing staff positions in central service units (communications, computing support, alumni relations, development, academic and student affairs, graduate and research programs). Not all decisions have been made, but several that have: close the Engineering Policy and Leadership Institute and decrease central support of undergraduate research
Use differential tuition to increase funding to all eight of its academic departments by approximately $1.8 million
Reduce hiring of faculty
Reduce graduate assistant and lecturer positions

Human Sciences, reduction target: $1,561,285

Departmental faculty have voted to continue planning to merge two departments (educational leadership and policy studies, and curriculum and instruction) into a single unit. Planning will continue through the 2010-11 academic year.
Remove state funding for the Research Institute for Studies in Education; the center will become primarily self-funded
Eliminate positions, both vacant and filled

Liberal Arts and Sciences: $4,737,922

Use retirements, resignations, open positions and expired contracts to reduce personnel
Reduce merit, P&S and non-tenure faculty positions through layoffs
Create "business centers" that serve multiple departments
Add course fees for some lab courses
Reduce graduate assistant positions in nine departments
Substantially cut (21 percent) funding for sociology department (this eliminates two open faculty positions and some graduate assistant positions) as part of a multi-year plan to refocus and downsize the department
Reduce energy consumption

Veterinary Medicine: $1,602,998

Reduce funds for faculty start-ups
Eliminate positions in central administration offices
Eliminate seven faculty positions (vacant or planned retirements)
Eliminate vacant staff positions, move funding for some to grant or fee income

Library: $974,394

Reduce personnel through retirements
Reduce energy use (lighting and heat)
Cancel some journal subscriptions (titles identified in fall 2009 review) and reduce book purchases

IT Services: $384,825

Reduce personnel by 3.5 people through early retirements
Reduce student labor hours, which reduces evening and weekend hours of operation in the Solution Center

President's unit: $610,162

Reduce state funding of athletics department
Reduce student employment hours
Reduce professional development, travel, supplies budgets
Reduce marketing of the university

Vice presidential units

Business and finance: $2,355,586

Transfer some employee compensation lines and supply budgets to reserve funds or fee income
Charge fees for services that were centrally supported in the past
Reduce staff positions by 24 FTE, which eliminates some services and creates wait time for others

Extension and outreach: $1,961,183

Reduce staff positions through retirements
Transfer some salaries to sponsored funding or user fees
Raise user fees in 4-H
Reduce operating expenses

Research and economic development: $918,613

Discontinue central funding for eight research centers (which will move under a college or institute)
Develop new funding model for four institutes (Bioeconomy Institute, Nutrition and Wellness Research Center, Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute and Institute for Transportation) based on realized indirect costs
Consolidate key services of the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research and Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology to create an integrated survey research lab

Student affairs: $969,386

Gain efficiencies in enrollment services research and analysis
Continue a multi-year plan to move recreation services from state to auxiliary funding
Eliminate three vacant positions (registrar and student financial aid offices)
Eliminate two planned positions at the Memorial Union
Reduce supplies, professional development, training and travel budgets