UNH Faculty Senate

Motion on the budgetary crisis
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UNH FACULTY SENATE
MOTION # XVI-M5

on budgetary crisis

1.  Motion presenter:   Robert Taylor

2.  Date of Faculty Senate discussion:   11/14/2011 and 11/28/2011

3.  Rationale:

Whereas on July 29, 2011, the Faculty Senate Agenda Committee decided to continue formation of an ad hoc Committee on Organization of Other Entities, after the Provost’s decision to forego appointing an “Other Entities” committee in order to focus on data gathering required for the accreditation process, and

Whereas, on October 17, 2011, President Huddleston stressed before the Faculty Senate the need for quick action to begin addressing the university’s structural deficit in time for submission of a proposed biennium budget to the Board of Trustees in December, and

Whereas the president indicated that all units are “on the table” for consideration of budget cuts to address the structural deficit, and

Whereas a structural deficit is addressed through alteration of significant parts or units of the structure that contribute to its deficit, and

Whereas the Office of the Provost has initiated examination of academic programs for possible programmatic cuts at all five UNH-Durham colleges and at UNH-Manchester, and

     Whereas the Committee on Organization of Other Entities is charged with examining non-academic units that either are receiving large budgetary inputs from university resources (e.g., the university’s Athletics Program) or are expanding (e.g. the UNH Information Technology Department), and

Whereas the Faculty Senate’s ad-hoc Committee on Organization of Other Entities has completed its examination and report on the university’s Athletics Program, and

Whereas the UNH Athletics Program’s budget of $23,059,481 (FY 08) depends largely on student fees ($8,452,984 or 37%) and institutional support from tuition and state funding ($7,444,082 or 32%), and

Whereas the student athletics fee cannot continue to increase at a 5 percent rate as it nears $1,000 per student each year, and

Whereas there is growing concern about raising tuition to a level that prospective students cannot meet, and

Whereas state funding has been reduced dramatically with dim prospects for restoration in the immediate future, therefore

4.  Motion:

Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate of the University of New Hampshire advises the university administration to consider the Athletics Program along with other academic and non-academic units (e.g., IT, USNH System) when exploring programmatic budgetary cuts to address the university’s structural deficit.

5.  Senate action:  passed unanimously.

6.  Senate chair’s signature:  Larry Prelli

Forwarded to:  President Mark Huddleston, on December 7, 2011

Forwarded to:  Provost John Aber, on December 7, 2011

Forwarded to:  Lisa MacFarlane, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, on December 7, 2011

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