Budget and Finance Committee Summary Notes
March 20, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
In attendance: Dean Edwards, Monte Boisen, Samantha Perez, Mark Labolle, Trina Mahoney, Keith
Ickes, John Marshall, Chad Kooistra, Don Crowley, Debbie Huffman, Jerry McMurtry, and Ralph Budwig
via telephone.
RA/TA Out of State Tuition Waivers
Edwards sent a copy of the College of Graduate Studies (COGS) request for an additional $1.2M to cover
instate tuition for graduate students to the committee members.
Monte Boisen was asked to talk to the committee about TA issues within the Math department. Jerry
McMurtry from COGS was also invited to join the group to talk directly about the college’s request.
Boisen noted that the Mathematics department has a large general education teaching requirement and
the TAs help fill this requirement. The department also has a lot of early career faculty that are ready to
mentor graduate students in research and TAs are an important part of how the department carries out
its mission. A couple of years ago, the department was given six waivers which allowed it to recruit
graduate students for the first time because were able to offer the students $9K for them to live on
which was considered a decent amount of money for that period of time. Without the waivers the
department was not able to compete with other institutions and almost always lost the students to
another institution. However in order to provide a stipend to the graduate students, the department
has had to take money from the department’s gift account which has now been almost completely
depleted. The Math department worries that if they lose their waivers they will no longer be able to
recruit quality graduate students. The department may be able to find some short term funding
solutions but these short term fixes are not viable long term.
Several years ago the number of TA positions in the Math Department was reduced from 16 to 13
positions. If their TA numbers were reduced any further they wouldn’t be able to staff their entry level
math classes with TAs nor would they have sufficient numbers for their professors to work with as
graduate students. This semester the department did not have waivers to offer and was not able to
recruit high quality students.
Labolle asked what the total number of graduate students is in the Mathematics department right now.
Boisen responded that they have the 13 TAs, three BCB graduate students funded on RAs and one other
graduate student that is not a TA or an RA but pays for his tuition completely out of pocket. Labolle
asked Boisen to clarify if he was saying that reducing the TA numbers would negatively impact the Math
department because it wouldn’t be able to have TAs teach courses anymore or because it wouldn’t be
able to hold a graduate program together with that number of students. Boisen answered that it was
the latter that they would have to hire temporary lecturers to teach courses if the TA numbers were cut
back which they prefer not to do. If UI is really going to expand the student population without
increasing TA numbers then the Math department will not be able to keep up with demand for courses.
Boisen also noted that without sufficient graduate students the department also risks losing top faculty.
Marshall asked what for clarification as to what part of the argument is specific to the Math
Department. Boisen answered that the general education teaching requirement is specific to the Math
department because many departments at UI do not have a lot of classes taught by graduate students.
Crowley responded that every department with a graduate program in CLASS has TAs help cover general
education but they are not able to pay them anything additional just the $14K amount given to them
from the Graduate College. The students would still have to pay for their fees and the approximately
$750 per year for their health insurance coverage and these additional costs basically eat up the entire
amount. Crowley added that the Political Science department gets $28K per year for TAs and they have
been splitting this money between two graduate students.
Boisen noted that recruiting for Math graduate students is especially difficult because all of the other
institutions are able to provide financial support to the students as an incentive to select their
institution. Crowley added that he agrees with the issue and the concerns that Boisen has brought up
but he believes the problem is more widespread across the university. Crowley added that he believes
there are many departments in worse shape than the Math department and he is concerned about how
these waivers will be distributed and who will be considered deserving of additional waivers. McMurtry
responded that the goal of the College of Graduate Studies is to cover instate fees for every TA hired.
Their goal is that the full fees will be covered and not a lesser or prorated amount which would increase
every year with rising tuition costs.
Crowley asked Ickes if he could answer the question of where UI will get the money to provide the
additional TA support money the committee is discussing. Ickes responded that there are really only
two options, UI will either have to cut an existing budget by $1.2M or increase the undergraduate
tuition rate. Crowley asked if it would be possible to take some of the money from the $5.2M budget.
Ickes responded that the group can look at the budget and discuss obligations. This budget is funded by
the state designated money for occupancy, money for last year’s enrollment growth, and tuition. The
undergraduate students are the driver in generating all tuition revenue. Crowley asked if it was true
that the projected enrollment numbers were down. Ickes responded that right now we hope to hold
steady at the same enrollment number as last year but do not expect growth.
Crowley noted that we then have to find $1.2M from the existing $5.2M budget. Ickes noted that Dean
Wood came forward and asked for an additional $260K for additional TA stipends which you also have
to match with OST waivers so that increases that budgeted amount. Boisen added that in order to
support the kind of enrollment growth that President Nellis wants, the Math Department would need an
additional five TA lines.
Ickes noted that last year we projected an increase in F&A and it does not look like we will make that
number and next year we are not projecting any increase. UI has talked about construction of a new
Science building which is the kind of facility that can attract the full 43% F&A which will improve our
overall F&A situation.
Ickes then provided the group with the FY13 preliminary budget plan. Budgeted items include the 6.1%
proposed tuition increase which will generate $3.7M, EWA of $870K and occupancy costs of $650K for a
total $5.2M in revenue next year. From this $5.2M we have to pay for UI’s share of the salary raise,
faculty promotions, and benefit increases which total $2M. Also, every college has committed start up
packages and requested faculty hires for a total of $1.1M. The budget also includes library inflation and
a book budget for a total of $766K which would be split $350K for the Library and $100K for the Law
Library. Also budgeted is $362K total for graduate waivers which includes $160K increases in in-state
tuition waivers plus indexing for increases in tuition differential between resident and non-resident.
We also have to budget approximately $273K for the rising cost of utilities. Other budgeting decisions
include contract extensions such as international recruiting and security contracts which total $256K,
mid-career faculty awards totaling $45K, and $400K for classroom renovation and facility repair and
replacement. Together all of these line items add up to $5.22M in expenses.
Crowley responded that it looks like all of the money has essentially already been spent. Ickes
responded that the group also needs to keep in mind that this preliminary budget plan is reliant on the
approval of the 6.1% tuition increase which is the highest in the state. Across the state, LCSC is
proposing a 4% increase, Idaho State a 4.7% increase and Boise State a 5.7% tuition increase. Part of our
pitch to the State Board is to make the case that this tuition hike will enable UI to start a step forward
and not just continue to take care of old business. We have stressed that salary increases for staff and
faculty are important as well as having an adequate library and moving forward with key faculty hires
and we hope the State Board will hear our message.
Crowley noted that across CLASS most of the new faculty hired this year were brought in at a higher
salary than the existing assistant professors and in some cases at salaries higher than associate faculty
members. This has created dissatisfaction and inequality across the college as there has not been any
faculty pay raises in the past four years. Ickes responded that this issue is on the administration’s radar
but they have not been able to deal with this problem yet and have to be careful to deal with the issue
systematically in order to avoid creating morale, personnel and legal issues. The administration is
aware that the problem exists but it will not be easy to deal with until we identify a source of funding.
Crowley asked Ickes if he had any insight into why WSU’s application numbers are up. Ickes responded
that he believes a main reason is that WSU lowered their admission requirements. Also, WSU’s
enrollment growth is mostly with resident students and they did not see major growth in non-resident
student numbers. However, WSU’s enrollment will be impacted this fall because the state has
mandated that the University of Washington begin accepting more Washington residents. If the
University of Washington enrolls a larger number of in-state students, WSU will have to compete to
enroll the same population. Marshall added that the University of Washington made the conscious
decision to increase their out of state enrollment numbers. Edwards noted that they did this because
they said non-resident tuition would help subsidize resident student tuitions. Ickes responded that
while this group has discussed this strategy as well, UI is only $200 apart from of our peers in Idaho
which creates a flat field. Boise State is able to recruit heavily in Treasure Valley which boosts their
enrollment. Mahoney added that WSU has the Spokane, Tri Cities and Vancouver campuses close to
population centers which boost their enrollment numbers. UI does not have a big presence in any of
these population centers making it harder to compete.
Edwards noted that if you are going to increase enrollment or improve the quality of undergraduate
education without more money, the best place you can put that money is toward your TAs. Crowley
asked where we could take money out of the budget to pay for this increase in TA funding. Edwards
responded that the biggest pot is the $2M for salary support. Ickes noted that this money is set aside
for faculty/staff raises, promotion and benefits and essential faculty hires. Crowley noted that the only
piece of the budget plan that he would remove is the mid-career faculty awards and that would not
make a significant difference in the budget. Edwards noted that he understands the point Ickes is
making but if he was going to develop a budget plan he would do it differently. Ickes noted that it is still
important for UI to pay attention to early undergraduate education. Ickes added that at other
institutions where he had worked, he was regularly asked what percentage of the freshman class is
taught by actual faculty members. UI still has the advantage that our freshmen are much more likely to
have an actual faculty member teaching their class than at many other bigger institutions. Edwards
noted that he is not advocating using TAs to teach courses instead of faculty, rather that we can use TAs
to teach labs and help professors to enhance and improve our undergraduate education.
Crowley noted that in looking at the preliminary budget he does not see where we will find the money
to fund an additional $1M in waivers. Ickes added that he would like the group to keep in mind that this
budget is an attempt to make some progress even if it is only minimal progress.
Ickes gave the group an additional handout which he asked the group to review in order to be able
discuss it at the next meeting.
The meeting ended at 3:02 p.m.