ISU battles budget crunch

Dustin Mcdonough

As the summer session begins, ISU administrators are faced with the task of how to handle the cut in the 2001 budget.

Iowa’s regent schools are receiving a $3 million increase from the 2000 budget, with Iowa State receiving a $900,000 increase.

Though the university will receive more than $256 million from the state in 2001, that amount is some $60 million less than Iowa State’s request to the Board of Regents for $317 million.

ISU President Martin Jischke said the cut in the budget will create a shortfall of about $10 million in funding for the university’s salary policy and operating budget.

Jischke said a 4.3 percent increase in tuition that was supposed to have gone toward improving the university will now have to be used to help cover the shortfall.

“We had originally told the students and the Board of Regents that we hoped to use funds from the tuition increase to enhance the library and information technology and deal with some heavily enrolled classes. We’re not going to be able to do that now,” he said.

After accounting for income from tuition and fees, the shortfall will be about $5 million. The administration is currently making plans on what other methods to use to deal with the shortfall.

“We’re in the middle of working through the plan,” Jischke said. “We have made a decision that certain areas will not be reduced. That includes library acquisitions, student financial aid, funds that we use to recruit students, funds for matching and start-up packages for new faculty and building repair funds.”

Jischke also said he wanted to make sure the impact on the university’s academic programs is minimized.

David Fisher, member of the Board of Regents, said he was concerned about maintaining competitive salaries for faculty and staff.

“I hope we do not fall back into the pattern we had in the mid-1980s, when there was low income from the state and we did not take care of improving salaries for faculty and administration,” he said. “During that time, the salaries at Iowa State and the University of Iowa, when compared with those of peer universities, were some of the lowest.”

Some faculty and staff may have to be laid-off, Jischke said.

“I don’t know for sure yet, but it’s hard to imagine that with a $5 million shortfall there won’t be a few lay-offs, but I just don’t know how many yet,” he said.

Fisher also expressed concern over maintenance of facilities at the regent schools, saying that during the “pattern” in the mid-1980s there was not enough financing put into maintenance.

“Eventually, we had to have a major increase in funding for maintenance to catch up with what had not been done,” he said.

Dave Miller, director of Facilities and Utilities for Facilities Planning and Management, said it was still too early to tell how the budget cut would affect maintenance funds at the university.

“We’re waiting to hear from the administration on what our numbers will be, and then we will make our decisions based upon those numbers,” he said.

Though he wasn’t sure exactly how Facilities Planning and Management would be affected by the budget cut, he did express his concern over the situation.

“Any time that we have budget cuts, we get concerned about that, not only in terms of how it will affect our staff, but in terms of people’s perception of the university as well,” he said.

If the budget does not change significantly in future years, larger tuition increases may be in order, Jischke said.

“That’s something the Board of Regents will have to think about this fall,” he said. “For the past few years, we’ve had increases in the 3.5 to 4.5 percent range. I think it’s clear that to make up for this shortfall; the only alternative the board has to keep the university’s quality up is to raise tuition more than 3.5 to 4.5 percent.”

Fisher said he hoped tuition would not have to be raised more than the average of the past few years.

“I hope the administrations are able to reallocate funds so that … students will not have to cover the whole shortfall through tuition,” he said.

Administrators from the regent schools will meet with the Board of Regents Wednesday and Thursday to discuss plans on reallocating funds for the fiscal year 2001.