The University of Missouri System Board of Curators approved the University's fiscal year 2005 appropriations request at its July 25 meeting in Columbia.
The board approved a request of the FY04 $388.7 million core budget with additional funding for the following items: cost to continue, $31.6 million; operating new buildings, $6 million; funding equity/resource gap initiative, $32 million; life sciences, $7.6 million; and health sciences, $10.5 million.
The total operating request approved is $476.5 million.
The University Health Care's budget requests are the FY04 core budget of $23.2 million and a cost to continue increase of $1.1 million, for a total FY05 hospital request of $24.3 million.
Other curator recurring program requests include: FY04, $22.9 million; cost to continue operations, $1.1 million; and MOREnet-increased Internet capacity, $1.1 million, for a total of $25.1 million.
Other curator programs, non-recurring, include: MOREnet-new decision items, $1.2 million; Alzheimer's research program, $383,900; spinal cord injury fund, $400,000; and seminary fund, $2 million, for a total request of $4 million.
Recent years have seen a steady decline in state funding for higher education. In FY03, the University took $45 million in cuts to its core budget followed by additional state withholdings of $13.8 million, reducing total funding to $385 million. The previous year, FY02, the University took $66 million in unplanned withholdings, reducing funding to $376.9 million.
For the current fiscal year, 2.5 percent in state withholdings have already been announced, bringing anticipated state funding for FY04 down to $367 million, the lowest since 1998.
During her presentation to the board, UM Vice President for Finance and Administration Nikki Krawitz said that state funding continues to be vulnerable. "The outlook for state appropriations is bleak," Krawitz said. "The national economy is sluggish and structural problems in state revenue generation compound the economic issues."
Krawitz said the funding situation is further complicated by the reduced capacity of the University to increase tuition to offset decreases in state appropriations and increases in non-discretionary expenditures. For the current fiscal year, the board has approved a 3.2 percent tuition increase and a $27 per-credit-hour surcharge.
The board also approved the FY05 capital appropriations request of $124.2 million.
The priority list is as follows: 1) Benton Stadler Renovations/Master Plan phase three, UM-St. Louis; 2) Mechanical Engineering addition and renovation, UM-Rolla; 3) Engineering East renovation, UM-Columbia; 4) campus chilled water and steam utility renovations, UM-Kansas City; 5) UM Libraries review and depository addition, UM; 6) Freshman Engineering and Student Services Building, UM-Rolla; 7) Master Plan, UM-Kansas City; 8) Master Plan, UM-Columbia; 9) Tate Hall renovation, UM-Columbia.
The request also includes engineering equipment replacement on the Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis campuses and an addition and renovations to the State Historical Society and Western Historical Manuscript Collection.
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