FHSU Budget Bulletin

March 26, 2009

As promised, this is another installment of the Budget Bulletin to keep all of you in the FHSU community informed on the status of our budget challenges. While it still is not possible to know with certainty what we may expect, the Kansas House and the Kansas Senate are finalizing bills that are beginning to set the parameters for the budget cuts that will be coming our way. The bill in the Senate would require a 12 percent cut in FHSU's Fiscal Year 2010 budget, which would translate to a reduction of about $4.5 million. The bill in the House would require an 8 percent cut in our FY2010 budget, which would translate to a reduction of about $3 million. These cuts would be for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and runs through June 30, 2010. By way of a reminder, the $1.6 million rescission already enacted in the current fiscal year has been covered by redirecting our action plan money so that there will be no impact on our operations for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends June 30. If both houses of the Kansas Legislature pass their proposed bills this week, a conference committee will meet to resolve the differences. This cut in next year's budget, in the range of $3 million to $4.5 million, is what I predicted when I spoke to you on Feb. 18 in the most recent University Open Forum. However, I expect that when new economic projections are issued in mid-April, the Legislature will need to enact further cuts. To put it bluntly, these cuts would drastically impede the ability of the Kansas Board of Regents system to provide adequate educational services to the people of Kansas. At FHSU, the cuts would impact faculty and staff positions.

You may be aware that the Regents proposed a tuition freeze for next year, but that was conditional on a maximum of 7 percent in cuts for university budgets. I am afraid the cuts will exceed 7 percent, so we will continue with the four-part strategy I outlined in the University Open Forum. As you recall, we will continue to pursue growth, we will develop new efficiencies to hold down operational costs, we will increase tuition, and, finally, we will implement budget cuts to fill the gap that remains following the first three steps of the strategy. Once again I must ask you to be patient as we wait and watch together for final decisions from the Legislature. Only then will we be able to make firm decisions about the steps we must take to address the budget cuts. In the meantime, please continue to post your suggestions and questions on Budget Watch, which can be found on the home page of the FHSU Web site. I greatly appreciate the many positive, creative suggestions you have provided.

I also want to emphatically express my appreciation to the budget managers in the departments and offices across campus for all the work you have done on drafting thoughtful strategies and proposals for dealing with the anticipated budget cuts in your areas.

Finally, here are more responses to some of the questions and suggestions that have been posted on the Budget Watch site.

Q. Just a thought as I am here on spring break Friday. What could we save from closing the university down all week for this break as we do over the Christmas break ... The NY Jets NFL team is doing something similar to the following: a two-week unpaid time off for all employees. This could be accomplished all at once like between semesters, or Fall and Spring breaks. Maybe it could be on an individual basis? Some areas probably couldn't handle this but we could go two weeks unpaid for 100 percent of administration, to set a good example; 100 percent of faculty; and maybe 90 to 95 percent of the staff, leaving a bare bones crew for security, Virtual College, phones, etc. While I didn't run the unpaid two weeks by them, it appears in speaking with coworkers that it's a near unanimous opinion that everyone is in this together and rather than making a few single individuals take the entire brunt of this crisis we should all do our small part. I realize this would be a logistical nightmare to accomplish, but could potentially save a lot of money in a more fair and balanced manner.

A. We are considering the option of closing the campus during spring break in the future. It would mean either requiring all FHSU employees to use vacation time, as we do during the Christmas break, or treating it as a furlough, which means employees would have the week off with no pay. Some universities have taken similar actions because of the economic downturn, but this is one of the things that will not be decided until we know how many dollars we actually have to cut from our budget.

Q. In [one of my classes] we have been discussing and practicing creative thinking. An exercise that I conducted today in class encouraged students to come up with creative suggestions to assist in improving the budget situation. I promised my students that I would pass them on to you. Many of them are ideas that have been suggested already. Thank you for taking time to read and consider their suggestions.

• Increase parking pass prices;
• Increase tuition for each student that would equal out to about $100 per semester more;
• Increase the capacities in the on-line courses;
• Replace all light bulbs in classrooms with CFL bulbs and sensor lights that go off when the classroom is not in use;
• Keep exploring wind energy for the campus; Utilize the solar energy panels;
• Connect more with the community, encouraging students to volunteer their services to community agencies, which will bring returns to the community and university.

A. These are all worthwhile suggestions. Increases in parking fees and other fees are under consideration but, as with other decisions, must wait until we see what the Legislature decides. We are diligently pursuing the wind energy option and are hopeful that stimulus money may be available as the best option to finance it. I think I've spoken to most of the other suggestions previously, and there is additional information about lighting in the question that follows.

Q. Remove light bulbs from every other panel in hallways and restrooms. For example, the women's restroom on 2nd floor has seven panels with lights plus two panels over the mirrors. Leave the lights over the mirrors, but take out a fourth to half of the remaining light bulbs. Do this in hallways as well. In stairwells, leave those alone since those tend to be darker and need more lighting for safety reasons. But bathrooms and hallways lights could be removed without impacting safety. I would have to think if this were done all over campus, it could have a significant impact on energy costs.

A. We experimented with removing some of the lights and learned that the savings in electricity would not cover the cost of replacing ballasts that burn out because of missing bulbs. This is still an idea worth pursuing, though, and we may try replacing some of the good bulbs with burned out bulbs to see if that reduces the problems with the ballasts.

Q. KAMS should be postponed. This is a perk for a few seniors, not as important as the income/livelihood of the current workforce. Bring it back when the budget is not so incredibly strained.

A. Besides being a wise investment in some of our brightest youth that will produce tremendous economic benefits for Kansas in the future, the funding for the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science comes from new money provided by the Legislature expressly for this purpose. Postponing KAMS would not free up money for other uses.