Enrollment leads to budget increase
Funds to be used for campus renovations, faculty compensation

By Alisha Brown
Staff Reporter

An increase in enrollment led to the $20 million increase in the operating budget the Board of Trustees approved Friday, said Carol Campbell, vice chancellor for finance and marketing.

Campbell said the $189 million budget is the largest budget in the university history.

“We build based on the previous year’s revenue,” she said.

Last fiscal year, the operating budget was approved at $169 million, but was based on lower enrollment figures from the previous year, Campbell said. With increased enrollment last fall, the actual revenue generated came to approximately $175 million.

Campbell said 58 percent of the operating budget is derived from tuition and fees. So the $20 million increase from the budget approved last year was mostly an effect of the rise in enrollment.

“It is a larger than normal increase and goes back to the tuition,” she said.

Campbell said another 27 percent of the operating budget revenue is derived from the draw on the endowment, which also increased by $5 million in the last fiscal year. The remainder of the budget comes from other smaller revenue sources such as athletic events and bookstore sales.

She said the operating budget goes toward the daily functions and the upkeep of the university such as maintenance and utilities. The largest portion goes toward compensation for faculty and staff.

The 2001-2002 budget includes $1 million to aid in compression issues raised by the Staff Assembly, Campbell said.

“We’ve spoken up and they listened,” said Jean Andrus, chairwoman for the Staff Assembly. “We asked that they address the issue of compression and they did.”

Campbell said a 3-percent raise and $1.5 million to unfreeze faculty and staff positions and hire new employees are also included in the budget.

Even with the $20 million increase, however, Campbell said she was still $6 million short of what was requested overall.

“Budgeting is a matter of balancing,” she said. “So I guess if everyone is equally disappointed, you’ve done a good job.”

If departments go over their allotted budgets, a cushion is planned in for protection, Campbell said.

“The departments here are very responsible about adhering to their budgets, but we build (in) a contingency because we don’t know what unforeseen event is going to occur,” she said. “Last year we had $1 million contingency in the budget and needed it to cover our fuel bills because we had no idea energy costs were going to go up as much as they did.”

Campbell doubled that contingency to $2 million this year.

“It’s still a very small percentage of $189 million, though,” she said.

In addition to the $189 million, the board also approved a $60 million capital budget, Chancellor Michael Ferrari said. Funds from the capital budget go toward one-time large purchases for the university, such as the renovation of Waits Hall.

Most of the revenue for the capital fund is from gifts for specific projects, Campbell said. The first portion of the $30 million for classroom, laboratory and studio renovations is also included in the capital budget, as well as appropriations for other building projects including the William E. and Jean Jones Tucker Technology Center.

“Budgeting is taking all the requests and needs and pulling those together to project what revenues there might be and then cutting back to fit it,” Campbell said. “There are always many more good ideas of projects to fund and needs to meet than there is money available.”

Alisha Brown
a.k.brown2@student.tcu.edu