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from the issue of April 7, 2005
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Perlman previews budget info
(The following email to all was sent April 5 by UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman)
Dear Colleagues:
This afternoon I will be reporting to the Academic Senate on a matter that has a good news-bad news quality to it and I thought I would share this report with all of you. It addresses the familiar subject of our budget. First, the good news.
We all remain hopeful that the Appropriations Committee will continue to look favorably on the university and that its current budget draft will be reported and adopted by the Legislature. This will be a welcome change from three years of very serious and real budget reductions that included $26 million in reductions over three years. Within the university we continue to see very significant progress on so many fronts. Research grant activity continues to increase despite federal cutbacks. The quality and content of the winning proposals for the Teaching and Learning Initiative suggest we will continue to see exciting enhancements in teaching and learning. We will shortly announce the allocation of the Programs of Excellence funding which promises to continue to build both focus and quality in our academic programs. Yet, we continue to face a significant challenge caused by our enrollment decline this year and the tuition shortfall that decline precipitated. The shortfall could be as high as $6 million. This means we will not have sufficient dollars to fund this year's budget and unless enrollment increases rapidly for fall, we cannot sustain next year's level of expenditures either.
I am afraid this means that we will have to begin looking at very real changes in how we manage our resources and, yes, some reductions in current budgets.
I believe the enrollment decline is in large part a lingering product of the budget cuts and the significant increases in tuition rates over the last four years. The perception became, although I think not the reality, that UNL had priced itself beyond the means of many families.
We have worked hard to change that perception, and we owe it to Nebraskans to honor our commitment to keep UNL affordable for Nebraska families. Our tuition and costs are less than half of some private institutions and favorably comparable to our peers. We remain rated a "Best Value" at the same time we are ranked among the top 50 public research universities in the nation. I am encouraged by the early indications that we will see increased numbers for next year's freshman class.
However, even if we recapture lost ground based on a large incoming freshman class, we will continue to have the current year's small class working its way through the system; coupled with the facts that we have graduated two very large classes, and face increasing challenges with graduate enrollment, we predict there may be further tuition revenue declines next year as well.
Right now we are focused on minimizing the damage. We have enlisted faculty and others to work hard to retain the students we have and to attract additional students to the university.
Shortly we will need to turn our attention to managing the shortfall. I have asked the vice chancellors to begin to look at a variety of ways to reduce expenditures even during these last few months of the fiscal year.
Fortunately we have a strategic planning process in place that will help us make whatever difficult decisions are required for next year. Because this shortfall has been created by enrollment declines, one of the factors that should be considered in making reductions will be patterns of enrollment within academic departments.
We have faced greater challenges during the last few years and we have managed, together, to find a way to address them while moving the university forward.
As always I will value your ideas and counsel as we tackle yet another difficult matter.
- Harvey Perlman
GO TO: ISSUE OF APRIL 7
NEWS HEADLINES FOR APRIL 7
Kooser wins 2005 Pulitzer for poetry
Coble leads the way in China, Japan research
Informational artist invades East Union
A Piece of University History
Conference marks Voting Rights Act anniversary
Opinions start to shape UNL master plan
Perlman previews budget info
732043S34497X
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