Monday messages

The New Academic Year

Greetings to all of you at the beginning of a new and exciting academic year!

At a university, the "future" - for us and for our students -- begins on the very first day and resumes with each succeeding period of every class. We recreate the university every time we enter the classroom, laboratory, or
library.

I encourage you to approach this new year with enthusiasm, regardless of the work you do. John Ciardi once wrote that "only the excited can learn." I would add that only the excited can teach, or do research, or serve students in other ways. If the start of the new year doesn't excite you, with its rhythms and raw energy, then it's time to recharge your personal batteries.

Having said that, however, I can understand how you might approach the new academic year with some concerns. The new 2003 state budget reduced our funding by $7.4 million, more than three percent, and provided no funds for salary increases. In June, we announced spending reductions in response to that budget.

On August 15, Governor Graves announced budget "allotments" that additionally reduce KU's state budget by about $1.2 million at Lawrence and $825,000 at the Medical Center, making the total reduction for the year $9.5 million for the whole university. He took this action because state revenue is well below what's needed to sustain the budget adopted by the Legislature in May.

We expected an allotment action and we made contingency plans. It's possible, but not easy, to manage this latest funding reduction, which represents about one percent of our budget. Realistically, however, unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the state's revenue during the next few months, the next governor will be forced to impose additional allotment reductions. These may be more severe and harder to deal with. When they come, we will continue to use the budget cutting principles I spelled out in my July 8 "Monday Message" (www.ur.ku.edu/News/Mondays/02/070802.html), and which are reprinted again at the end of this message.

The sky is not falling at KU. We will cinch our belts another notch and move forward. We will stretch our time and resources further if we must. We will "multitask" and be creative, and we will do all that is necessary to ensure that our students have access to this university and what it has to offer. Your best efforts as we move forward will help make that happen.

Also over the summer, the Kansas Board of Regents approved our tuition proposal for 2002-03. While the average resident undergraduate will pay $300 more per semester this year than last, that student will also begin to see benefits that make the tuition increase well worth the cost. KU will still be very affordable, thanks, in part, to the KU Tuition Grant program. As the front page of USA Today reported on August 7, "The University of Kansas is investing $1.5 million, or about 20% of the revenue raised by the undergraduate tuition increase, into need-based aid, the first
time a tuition hike has included such funding. About 3,036 of 19,000 undergraduates will get awards of up to $500 a year, enough to cover most of the $600 [annual] increase."

The neediest students receive the grants, but all students will benefit in other ways, especially in the area of information technology. At Lawrence in coming weeks, we will announce hardware and software purchases and improvements that are funded by the $3.6 million generated as part of this year's enhanced tuition technology fee increase. Other applications of enhancement tuition will be announced as they are implemented throughout the year.

If not for the tuition increase, KU would have less in total resources this year than we had a year ago. Because of tuition, our rising level of funded research, and the increased amount of support we receive from the KU Endowment Association, we can stay on target toward our goal of becoming one of the Top 25 public universities in the country. The question becomes, can we expect the State of Kansas to be our principal funding source, the way it was in past generations. Tuition, gifts and grants are rising, while state support is falling. It's a sobering reflection but a truthful one.

Nonetheless, we remain a public university. The outcome of the November elections matters to us a great deal. We will work with all candidates for public office, especially both candidates for Governor, to stress the importance of all education, from pre-school through graduate school. We will also make sure candidates understand and appreciate the role the University of Kansas plays in our state. Above all, we encourage our students, faculty, staff, and alumni, to educate themselves by following closely the fall campaign. It is important that we all register to vote and cast our ballots on November 5.

Bob Hemenway
Chancellor