Torchbearer: Summer 1996

Budget Takes a Beating

Chancellor Bill Snyder says UT Knoxville can use its budget problems to become a stronger institution.

Needs and commitments for the 1997 fiscal year were approximately $7 million higher than projected revenues, forcing campus officials to cut the budget, leave faculty positions vacant, and lay off administrative and support staff.

"As painful as the financial environment will be for the next two to three years, the exercise of fiscal self-discipline to a degree never practiced before can provide an opportunity for emerging as a stronger university," Snyder said at a convocation on the University's financial future.

"We can become stronger by doing fewer things but doing them better."

Budget woes stemmed from a change in the way the state funds higher education, a state requirement that the University fund one percent of a three percent employee pay increase, a decline in graduate school enrollment, increases in fixed costs, and funding of campus priorities such as scholarships.

The campus trimmed overall spending about 5 percent, with cuts in academic departments averaging about 4. 2 percent, Snyder said. In making the cuts, officials tried to lessen the impact on students; preserve or strengthen teaching, research, and service; and preserve institutional values, such as the commitment to diversity.

UT Knoxville's educational and general budget for FY 97 is about $242 million. The campus' state appropriation makes up $147 million of that total, with an additional $76 million coming from student fees.

Officials expect a couple more difficult years because funding formula changes will take time, indirect cost recoveries for doing research may decline, and graduate enrollment probably won't grow dramatically.

Snyder said there is hope for the long term in Gov. Don Sundquist's statement that he would like to begin a multi-year program of improvements for higher education similar to the one in place for K-12.

For this to happen, Snyder said, "We will have to demonstrate that we have seriously addressed the challenges of establishing priorities, placing our resources in areas of highest priority, and reducing or eliminating areas of lesser priority."