From: News Alert E-Memo (memofrom@Colorado.EDU)
Date: Fri Jan 16 2009 - 16:27:45 MST
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:27:45 -0700 (MST) From: News Alert E-Memo <memofrom@Colorado.EDU> Subject: President Benson's Budget Communique 1.16.09
TO: Boulder Campus Teaching & Research Faculty, Staff,
Deans, Directors, Dept Chairs
FROM: Office of the President
SENDER: Office of the President
DATE: January 16, 2009
SUBJECT: President Benson's Budget Communique 1.16.09
Jan. 16, 2009
Dear Members of the University of Colorado Community,
The governor's Office of State Planning and Budget (OSPB) made its
recommendations today to the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee (JBC) for
cuts to the 2008-09 current year budget and as expected, the news is not
good for higher education. OSPB recommends that $30 million be cut from the
2008-09 higher education appropriation. We will need to make cuts beginning
immediately and must accomplish them before the end of the fiscal year on
June 30.
What is less clear is CU's portion of the cuts. The JBC will consider the
recommendation over the next week to 10 days. It can make amendments or
forward it as submitted to the full Legislature. Indications are that CU
will not take a disproportionate share of the cuts. We will know more next
week. The Senate is scheduled to consider it beginning Feb. 9 and the House
soon thereafter.
Rest assured that we will continue to diligently press CU's case throughout
the process.
We will learn about recommendations to the 2009-10 budget on Jan. 23. We
expect that the news will get even worse for next year's budget. The
Legislature will follow its typical budget process, likely to begin in
March. The March 20 revenue forecast will be a key benchmark about available
revenues.
I will continue to work with the chancellors to determine how best to
proceed. They will be the official source of communication on each campus.
Budget reduction plans will be campus driven and all areas of the CU
enterprise will be examined, including the system operations. The process
will be open and transparent, and we will collaborate with system and campus
governance groups.
We will strive to maintain our core activities of undergraduate, graduate
and professional education, and research. We will also work to keep a CU
education affordable for Coloradans. We strongly believe that the innovation
and development of human infrastructure that we provide will be a key to
Colorado's economic recovery. The work you do drives that critical endeavor.
At the Board of Regents meeting this week, the board approved a resolution
that calls on lawmakers to adopt legislation to provide us more flexibility
in our operations by changing limitations in existing statutes and allowing
us to opt out of certain statutes and create higher-education specific
rules. We are asking for flexibility in areas such as fiscal rules,
financial aid distribution, tuition setting, and eliminating the state
process for capital construction projects that are fully cash funded, among
others. While this will by no means solve our budget problems, it will help.
The board on Wednesday also approved a resolution regarding implementing
strategies for addressing the revenue shortfall that include, but are not
limited to, the following:
--Reviewing growth called for in strategic plans and curtailing, where
appropriate;
--Implementation of revenue-enhancement strategies;
--Considering furloughs;
--Reviewing and reducing or eliminating unspent, one-time expenditures
such as learning materials and capital expenses;
--Identifying and eliminating certain non-permanent expenditures;
--Reviewing and possibly amending release time policies and practices;
--Reviewing academic offerings;
--Reviewing staffing levels to determine potential position eliminations;
--Analyzing and possibly curtailing salary increases for fiscal year
2009-10;
--And reviewing personnel policies for any efficiencies.
Other strategies may emerge as we proceed. Discussions are taking place now
on campuses and in system administration. I will keep you updated through
communiques such as this, and you will also hear from chancellors. In the
meantime, thank you for what you do for CU. These are trying times, but we
have been an integral part of our state and nation's success for more than
132 years, and we intend to remain so. If you have feedback, you can e-mail
officeofthepresident@cu.edu
Sincerely,
Bruce D. Benson
President
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