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UNC Trustees Approve 2009-10 Budget
June 12, 2009
- Media contact: Nate Haas
- 970-351-1763 nate.haas@unco.edu
University of Northern Colorado’s Board of Trustees approved the operating budget for the 2009-10 academic year at its regularly scheduled meeting Friday, June 12.
With flat state funding expected through 2011-12, thanks to federal stimulus money back-filling $150 million in cuts to Colorado higher education which included an $8.9 million reduction for UNC, trustees approved a recommendation to adjust tuition, increase financial aid, keep constant employee salaries excluding promotions and offer voluntary incentive separation packages for classified staff who’ve served 20 or more years at UNC.
Undergraduate tuition for Colorado residents will increase by $354 to $4,296 for the academic year while undergraduate nonresident tuition will also be adjusted by 9 percent to $14,544. Financial aid for undergraduates is also increasing by $525,000, maintaining last year’s one-time commitment by trustees to increase funding for institutional scholarships by $1.3 million. The $9.2 million in financial aid available to undergraduates will provide greater flexibility in discounting, which will result in lowering the cost of attendance for many students. Students with the greatest need will be unaffected by the change in tuition.
Course, participation, supervision and assessment fees will be added in some cases to cover the cost of delivering the class (a listing of the courses and corresponding fees is in the FY2010 June Budget Book at ttp://www.unco.edu/obia/FY10.html).
Graduate tuition and discounting will be organized into three categories at the master’s and doctoral levels. Discounts of $2.7 million, including an increase of $665,000 in Teaching Assistant/Graduation assistant scholarships, will fully or partially offset tuition increases, which vary depending on those categories.
A tiered approach will also be taken for room rates. Rates fall into six categories ranging annually from $3,950-$5,020, based on the amenities available. Discounting is also available for room rates. Meal plans will be expanded to offer six different selections.
While there will be no across-the-board salary increases for employees, excluding promotions, the employee contribution to benefits plans will remain at the 2009-10 rate. It’s expected that voluntary incentive separation packages offered to about 100 classified staff will result in savings of at least $250,000.
Campus budget leaders will be leveraging the work done up to this point in developing a five-year financial plan with targets for revenues, pricing/discounting, enrollment and cost savings.
For more about the budget, visit ttp://www.unco.edu/obia/FY10.htmll.
In other news:
- The board also approved a benefit plan for full-time employees that increases from six to nine the number of credit hours covered annually. Qualifying employees may now enroll in one three-credit course each semester during the academic year: fall, spring and summer. There is no out-of-pocket cost to the university because the employee benefit pool covers the cost.
- Vice President of University Relations Chuck Leonhart presented results from a monthslong integrated marketing and branding campaign. Nearly 40 members of the campus community served on a committee in developing tagline concepts, identity statements and messaging themes. Formal testing of the concepts will get under way this summer with the anticipated date for rolling out the messages in mid-September.
- UNC is collaborating with state law enforcement agencies on a concept to bring a forensics lab to campus. The proposal would house a Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab to analyze DNA. If funds are raised to go forward with the project, UNC would donate land south of the University Center for the lab.
- Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Access Tobias Guzman reported that fall applications are up 9 percent over last year at this time, and fall Housing applications are up by 15 percent. Applications are up by 15 percent for Greeley-Evans School District 6 and by nearly 40 percent for Denver Public Schools. Nearly 150 Greeley Promise Scholarship Awards have been offered to graduates of Greeley high schools.
- Guzman also said that six faculty members, a group that includes Fulbright scholars, will live in UNC residence halls next semester as part of a campus learning and living opportunity.
