Category | News

Papp addresses budget concerns

Published on September 30, 2008 by The Sentinel

    Kennesaw State University President Dan Papp has a number of
strategies in place to deal with the growing state budget crisis.

 
    Papp has proposed several solutions to help balance the five percent reduction in funding by the state of Georgia, including delays in hiring new staff, fewer buildings open during the summer semesters, more days the university will be closed during holiday breaks and different work schedules for certain faculty.

    The budgets for the University System of Georgia were reduced by six percent because Georgia’s revenues were lower than anticipated. There was also another five-percent budget decrease in the USG on-campus budgets with additional adjustments at the system level to absorb the final one percent.

    Over the summer, the KSU President’s Planning and Budget Advisory Council decided to distribute the on-campus budget reduction at the level of 1.2 percent for Student Services, 2.1 percent for Academic Affairs, and 5.5 percent for all other operational units.

    Since KSU started the 2009 fiscal year with the second highest increase it has ever received from the state budget with $12 million, it was able to manage the five-percent reduction by cutting the number of people being hired and reducing increases in operational budgets.

    Within recent weeks, Georgia’s budget condition has made a turn for the worse with the state’s August 2008 revenues seven percent lower than August 2007 revenues. For the first two months of the 2009 fiscal year, Georgia revenues have taken a 6.8 percent decrease and experts say this trend will continue most of the year.

    Though the current state of budget reductions is at six percent, KSU officials are preparing for the possibility of reductions reaching ten percent. Each percentage point increase could mean up to $900,000 of funds not allocated to KSU.

    One potential solution, according to KSU President Dan Papp, would include closing down campus Dec. 29, 30 and 31, and would save the university about $100,000 in utility costs.  Faculty would be asked to use those days as vacation time, to telecommute, or to schedule 24 hours of alternative work time.

    There are also talks in closing certain buildings during the May and summer semesters.  More stringent guidelines on travel may also be implemented.  Still, one key factor that helps KSU absorb these budget reductions is the increasing student population.

    In an email sent to faculty and staff, Papp also said KSU plans to compensate for the budget reductions by implementing new guidelines when it comes to hiring temporary and regular staff.  There will be a 30-day delay in posting vacant jobs and the delay will start when the job becomes vacant. Then when Human Resources fill the job, the start date will be two weeks from the offer date. 

    Papp said the vacant jobs policy applied to all “jobs that are currently funded by tuition and the state.” Greta Noren, a senator for KSU’s Student Government Association  said, “I agree with the President Papp’s proposals but we already have a shortage on teachers because our campus is growing so fast. That is a process that needs to be speeded up not slowed down.”

    Right now Georgia’s budget situation is far from being resolved so there may be additional procedures taken to alleviate this problem. It is not expected to get better until the first quarter of the 2010 fiscal year.

    According to Arlethia Johnson, special assistant to the president, “Causes of this crisis have been linked to inflation of the real estate market, and increased fuel prices.” 

    Ms. Johnson does stand behind Papp’s plans saying she feels that he has made the right plans to alleviate the deficit problem and he is making every effort to provide the best alternatives.

    Unlike most institutions that are facing a similar problem, alternatives such as lay offs are not in the plans of KSU. The budget reductions should not affect all of the new buildings that are in planning phases, like expansion of science labs, faculty offices, classrooms in the Bagwell and Coles colleges, and funds for the learning center. Buildings like the new dining hall and residence halls would not be affected because student fees cover their funding.

    Papp said in the open forum on Sept. 22, “KSU is still entitled to get around $147 million from the state for those buildings as long as the state continues to have a good bond rating.”