Metro State is taking the single-largest percentage budget reduction out of all the public higher education institutions in Colorado, according to President Stephen Jordan.

Before getting down to the nuts and bolts of his plan to reduce the 2009-10 fiscal year budget by $5 million, Jordan opened today’s town hall meeting with several charts that illustrate what he calls the “inequitable funding” of Metro State.

That inequity boils down to the fact that Metro State educates one-fifth of all the resident undergraduates in the state¯3,000 more than either Colorado State University or the University of Colorado Boulder¯yet receives $31 million less in general fund dollars than the other regional comprehensive institutions with the same missions (CSU-Pueblo, Fort Lewis, Adams, Western and Mesa State Colleges) combined. Exacerbating the situation, Metro State, with nearly double the number of Pell Grant recipients as CU and CSU, is educating more low-income and first-generation college students who are more likely to need significant student support services.

“.. if we were a public school, we’d have a great legal case for equal protection of our students…they’re clearly receiving less support,” Jordan said.

Jordan has taken advantage of the economic downturn to present these facts to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) and Gov. Bill Ritter, hoping that in the future this inequity will be rectified. “Truthfully, [the commissioners] jaws dropped when they saw these charts,” Jordan said. He admits, however, that he does not expect anything to change in time to affect the 9.98 percent reduction facing Metro State¯the largest percentage reduction out of all the state colleges and universities.

No layoffs

Nevertheless, Jordan reported that existing cost-containment measures will allow Metro State to meet its $2.9 million budget reduction for FY (fiscal year) 2008-09 and set a foundation for the $5 million base reduction in FY 2009-10.

He said that layoffs or furloughs are not part of the reduction, adding that retaining faculty and staff has been the theme behind all discussions he has had with the five vice presidents. He was quick to add, however, that until the state economic forecast comes out in March, he will not know if even greater cuts will be required. “Even after the appropriations are done in April, in the middle of next year, there could be supplemental cuts. We don’t know what the future holds.”

In the meantime, Jordan announced a three-tier plan for the FY 2009-10 reductions. Each vice presidential division and the president’s office was assigned a proportional target amount for Tier 1 reductions. These are:

• President’s Office – $130, 704
• Academic Affairs – $3,091,012
• Student Services – $350,586
• Admin and Finance – $177,073
• Institutional Advancement – $179,588
• Information Technology – $239,008

Another $793,149 will be reduced from the library, AHEC and designated categories.

Most of the reductions will come from cuts in operating budgets and restructuring of positions. The largest reduction in Academic Affairs will be made by reducing the value put aside for fully funded vacant faculty positions. “The bad news is that there will be less dollars for salary and benefits to compete in the marketplace. Nevertheless, Academic Affairs can meet its target without a single person losing a position on the faculty side.”

The above Tier 1 recommendations will be presented to the Trustees Finance Committee on March 10 and then to the full board at the April 1 meeting. Tier 2 recommendations are available for the trustees to consider as additional or alternate options. Tier 3 is those recommendations that could also be considered by the board, but are identified for a worst-case scenario.

Jordan also reiterated the initiatives that are priorities:

• Designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution
• Becoming an urban land-grant institution
• Continuing to increase full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty
• The Student Success building and Hotel Learning Center in the planned Metro State Neighborhood
• The major-gifts campaign to be launched once the economy begins to recover
• Professional development of faculty and staff
• Master’s programs

Regarding increasing tenured and tenure-track faculty, Jordan said, “We cannot let what happened in 2001 happen again, when we quit hiring full-time faculty.” He intends to replace any faculty who leave and hire additional new faculty incrementally, slowing down the original process for growing the faculty.

Other ideas
One idea to help rectify the budget situation for all of the state’s public higher-education institutions is a bill Jordan expects will be introduced later this month by Senate President Peter Groff that will allow the institutions’ governing boards to set tuition. “There would be a five-year plan on how we’d propose to raise tuition and it would be part of our performance contract [with the CCHE], so there would be accountability,” Jordan explained.

Another idea, which Jordan emphasized is only is the research phase, is for Metro State to cap enrollment. “We have to look at the possibility of constraining enrollment until state policymakers see the consequences of not funding us equitably,” Jordan said. “If we continue to accept students while cutting the budget, legislators will say ‘What’s the problem?’ There have to be some consequences along the way.”

Answers to anticipated questions
WhileJordan said he is certain “to the 99^th degree” that there will not be any salary increases, he says that the College will continue to deal with the salary equity issues for faculty and administrators in order to make sure employees don’t fall far behind the peer averages.

Regarding the stimulus bill that President Barack Obama will sign in Denver on Tuesday, Jordan said that there is funding that lumps together K-12 and higher education and it is left to the states to decide how it will be disbursed. “We don’t have any idea how the governor and legislature will approach this,” he said.

Questions from the audience
Following his 45-minute presentation, Jordan took several questions from the audience. To affiliate faculty member Howard Flomberg’s question whether affiliates will end up carrying an inequitable portion of the budget reductions, Jordan said “the answer is no.”

Nancy Shanks, chair of the Health Professions Department, asked about the Pay for Performance funds and suggested that the money be used to retain full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty, instead of giving bonuses. Jordan said that the base dollars for P4P funding are in Tier 3, and added that there could be one-time purposes considered for next fiscal year.

To Classified Staff Council Vice President Brett Haselton’s concern that while the number of administrators and students keeps rising, the number of classified staff keeps decreasing, Jordan said that he’s trying to keep the right mix of the staff. “However, we are an academic institution and I will continue to try to re-grow the faculty until we improve retention and graduation.”

Chemistry Professor Wilt Flemon asked what faculty and staff could do to help. Jordan suggested that anyone wishing to express an opinion on the funding situation at Metro State should contact their legislator.

Jordan also pledged to keep the College community informed of developments on a regular basis and “if I’m not getting enough communication out, remind me.”

Toward that end, Jordan said the meeting, including the power point presentation, are available on his home page at http://www.mscd.edu/president/speeches.shtml.