Budget Cuts At Fau - Everything On The Table

MeanGreen61 · February 1, 2008

What will the effect be on FAU athletics ?

FAU ponders cuts: 'Everything is on the table'

By KIMBERLY MILLER

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, January 31, 2008

BOCA RATON — A possible $7'million cut to Florida Atlantic University's budget this spring could change the direction of the 43-year-old school as administrators weed out programs and positions they can no longer afford.

The prediction was made Wednesday by Board of Trustees Chairman Norman Tripp during a budget presentation where school officials said the $7 million cut would come on top of a more than $6 million reduction made in the fall.

The situation is so dire, said FAU President Frank Brogan, that "everything is on the table," including FAU's six smaller campuses that stretch from the Treasure Coast to Davie.

"We cannot deal with this crisis anymore by cutting travel and this and that," said Tripp, referring to a freeze enacted this month on travel, hiring and buying equipment. "Many times you stay with things that you shouldn't long term simply because the money is there. This will be an opportunity for us, albeit a hard one, to look at things deep down and decide long term what we should be doing."

Recommendations for reductions will be addressed during a trustee committee meeting in February. Brogan said it is too early to guess what they will be.

"We are preparing for the worst," FAU Vice President for Finance Ken Jessell said.

The Board of Governors, which oversees Florida's 11 public universities, estimates an overall loss to schools of $92.3 million this spring. The statewide budget shortfalls are being blamed mostly on the housing slump, Jessell said.

State universities could see some extra money beginning in the fall with the approval last week by the Board of Governors of an 8 percent resident undergraduate tuition increase.

Full-time students would pay about $186 more a year under the hike. It would generate $32 million for universities statewide.

Who controls resident undergraduate tuition, however, is still in dispute. The voter-created Board of Governors claims it has the power, but so does the legislature. The matter is the subject of a lawsuit filed by former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who helped create the Board of Governors through constitutional amendment.

"It has a long way to go before it is ultimately a reality," Brogan said of the 8 percent tuition increase. "But we also know with budgets the way they are and the declining state revenues coming to universities, we have two options: Continue to cut our budgets or find new sources of revenue."

The possible budget cuts come at a time when FAU has gained national attention, first with a win at the New Orleans Bowl in December and then with last Thursday's Republican primary debate.

The debate publicity value translated to $899,159 for FAU as millions of people heard about the school during TV broadcasts.

The dollar figure comes from a calculation that considers media market size and viewership, school officials said.

MSNBC broadcast the debate live from FAU's Boca Raton campus. And about 10 million people watched NBC's Brian Williams do his Nightly News show from FAU's Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium.

"I think the idea of 'FAU Who?' doesn't exist anymore," said FAU trustee member and alumnus Armand Grossman.

Brogan said $265,000 was donated by private sources to pay for the debate. Final costs have yet to be calculated.

UNTflyer · February 1, 2008

If there are sports cuts, you can be certain football will be the last to go.

NT80 · February 1, 2008

If there are sports cuts, you can be certain football will be the last to go.

Yes, someone mentioned FAU recently mandated an $80 per student (x 34,000 students) per semester fee for athletics (ie football and new stadium). I especially like the term mandated, not voted on (hint, hint).

UNTflyer · February 1, 2008

FAU at one time was really nothing more than a community college on steroids. UNT fans think we have identity problems... I still have trouble thinking of FAU as a 4-year university with a Div-I football team.

Green to the Bone · February 1, 2008

Yes, someone mentioned FAU recently mandated an $80 per student (x 34,000 students) per semester fee for athletics (ie football and new stadium). I especially like the term mandated, not voted on (hint, hint).

I think that's almost correct. FAU charges $13.75 per credit hour in athletics fees. For someone taking 15 hours, that's $206.25 per semester. The 2007 financial paperwork I found on their stadium plan says they plan to devote 5 percent of the total athletics fees revenue to the stadium. If everybody took 15 hours, that would be a little over $700,000 per year, but their budget lists only $400,000 from that source, so obviously there's a missing detail there somewhere.

At any rate, with the university in dire financial shape, slashing academic expenses, losing $6 million now on top of another recent $7 million, and already increasing tuition by $186 a year, mandating a $160 a year fee increase just to pay for a new stadium right now would seem to fall somewhere between irresponsible and insane.

greenminer · February 1, 2008

I wonder if Ol Schnelly is going to sit at that table and have a word.

DallasGreen · February 1, 2008

From an April 1,2005 story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel FAU students at that time paid $7.9 Million per year in student athletic fees. FIU student fees provided $10.1 Million to the athletic budget working out to about $300. per student. The fee at UNT is $40. per student. Get the correlation as to why we can't keep good people much less have the seed money to prime the pump by giving our coaches the opportunity to win, which will in turn open the door for donor funds. How many big time donors want to pour contributions into a 2-9? I have heard that today's figures @ FAU are more like $6.2 Million and FIU over $13 Million. I may not be brilliant, but it is obvious the "cushy" deal our students get as well as paying no admission to games. I'm not trying to pad it for the alumni as I thoroughly agree with donation surcharges going to the MGC for prime seating, etc. but the poor, non-traditional, working student card has been played far too long at this university. For students and alums alike it's time to "put up or shut up" or go back to a lower division that we are presently funding like. But it's the chicken or egg principle-- you can't get big donors w/o some progress toward winning, and you can't give coaches the oppotunity to win w/o giving them the $$$$ through the athletic budget. This athletic program can give the university the opportunity to be a window to all university programs, but right now we are only funding for a "peephole". Tell the admins you want more and that you'll dig even deeper yourself when they too show some committment.