October 23, 2007
UM supports governor's CAP
The feature story in Friday’s Kaimin contained some misleading information. Vice President R. Duringer was quoted as saying that the University “didn’t get as much money from the governor’s office as we thought we were going to get.” In my discussion with a reporter, not the one who wrote the story in question, I explained that we worked with the Governor’s Budget Office staff to develop an estimate of the funds needed for a variety of cost increases and missed the mark a bit on some of the estimates. However, we received what we estimated. A second misleading statement again quotes Vice President Duringer to say that “We committed $1.5 million from the contingency fund to plug that hole,” referring to the revenue loss allegedly caused by 100 fewer heads at the University than last year. Yet a subsequent comment, again attributed to Vice President Duringer, explains that the costs of promotions and merits, technology increases, and other items required the use of some contingency funds. Budgets for an institution the size of the University are very complex and do not lend themselves to short sentence descriptions.
In addition, the story indicates that the University will ask for a 2 to 3 percent tuition increase for the next biennium. Perhaps. However, that issue remains up for discussion, and the Regents have made no determination about any possible tuition increase for the coming biennium. Toward the close of the story, the reporter quoted one of my statements as follows: “It will take more than one biennium to bring the balance back where it needs to be.” That statement refers to the balance between State appropriations and tuition. I made the statement in the context of indicating the University’s strong and continued support for the CAP because of its potential to restore a more appropriate balance over time. I also indicated my strong sense that the Governor intends to continue the CAP in some form, if at all possible, because of his own stated belief that restoring the balance will require time. To reach agreement with the Regents and the Legislature to freeze tuition for Montana residents for the first time in anyone’s memory and to move toward righting an imbalance that began to develop in the late 1970s strike me as significant achievements. We must all keep in mind what happened here.
Finally, the reporter quoted me as saying that the CAP did not provide for “campus initiatives, or improvement projects.” The inclusion without explanation of the phrase “improvement projects” presents a misleading impression. I made the reference to campus initiatives and other improvements in the context of programmatic - i.e., academic or student services—improvements and additions. I also explained that the Governor’s budget included funds to support deferred maintenance, campus construction and other facility projects on a pay-as-you-go basis, but that the CAP did not include funds for programmatic initiatives on the campuses. However, as I explained, the University did receive funds separate from the CAP to start the Speech and Language Pathology Program, and the Governor’s budget created pools of funding for competitive requests for equipment acquisition and new training programs. In another and related story, the reporter who spoke with me noted that the University received the start-up funding and a sizeable amount of the equipment funds, and has put these combined funds to use to start the new program in the School of Education. Finally, I also noted that the University, in fact, initiated some new programs to aid students by drawing on available funds – not funds provided by the CAP – specifically adding a psychiatrist to the staff in the Curry Health Center to assist in dealing with mental health issues, and a transcript evaluator in the Office of Admissions to implement the Regents’ new transfer policies.
I provide this explanation not to criticize the reporter or anyone else, since I have found that Kaimin reporters – including Ashley Zuelke with whom I spoke about these matters – generally get it right. Rather, I want to make very clear that the University supported the CAP and continues to support the CAP. Budget details require more close analysis for complete comprehension. I trust that these explanations will help people understand what has occurred and give them a sense of what remains for future determination.
George M. Dennison
President
This story has been viewed 123 times.
Comments
There are no comments for this story yet.
