BAC reports on '04 budget

The budgetary woes for IU and the question of whether or not they will continue was the topic of discussion Tuesday at the first Bloomington Faculty Council meeting of the academic year. \nThe Budgetary Affairs Committee reported its findings for the 2003-2004 fiscal year budget, and in its memo to the rest of the BFC members described its goals in planning the 2004-2005 budget.\nThis year, through internal reallocations, the University will be able to hold the line, but as Chancellor Ken Gros Louis indicated, the University can not do the same every year, BAC Co-Chair Bob Kravchuk said.\n"Enrollment obviously tied to the volume of expenditure, and if enrollment projections turn out to be overly optimistic, then what we have done is set budget expenses at levels that are higher than what the revenues will sustain, that is the situation we are in right now," Kravchuk said. \nThe BAC is unique from the other BFC committees, as it acts on the behalf of the council. The committee is also a representative of the council, offering continuing advice and criticism on all aspects of the Bloomington campus budgetary policy to the chancellor and the chief budgetary officer for Bloomington, according to the BFC bylaws. \nThe committee noticed several fiscal themes surrounding the budget. For example, a memo to the council indicated some campus units do not participate fully in the annual budget process, thus skewing fiscal accountability.\nGros Louis spoke to the council about several subjects, including the enrollment shortfall, which he said appears to be 2.4 percent.\n"(That) has been addressed through one-time actions -- drawing down reserves, deferring discretionary spending and so on -- that do not impact the ongoing base budget of the campus," he said. \nGros Louis cited several statistics that have hurt the University's budget. Operation support is down $14 million or 3.1 percent of the University base budget, the state has deferred one month's appropriation of $38 million, the University technology funding has been cut by $12 million and the University funding per student is last in the Big Ten. But because of tuition increases for all students -- 4 percent for all resident students and 6 percent of non-resident students -- there will be an extra $14.8 million in unallocated new resources.\n"Thus, we had about $17 million in expenditures, or some $2 million more than the new resources," Gros Louis said. \n-- Contact senior writer Mike Malik at mjmalik@indiana.edu.