University Senate
October 31, 2005 Meeting
President’s Report
submitted by President Leland
The website for the university’s strategic focusing process is now up and running. You can access it on the Info Page. Click on “Intranets” and near the bottom of the list you will find it. Among other things, the website includes results from the stakeholders’ survey that many of you completed and documents from the stakeholders conference held on October 26. These documents include a PowerPoint by Dave Brown on the characteristics of public liberal arts universities and a preliminary report from the mission progress review workgroup. Other information from the stakeholders’ conference, including ideas generated by the participants, will be posted soon.
Please explore the website and encourage your constituencies to do so as well. It is one of the ways to be actively involved in the strategic focusing process, even if you are not a member of one of the workgroups or committees. Each page of the website provides you with an opportunity to respond to the information provided. In addition, you will find a section entitled “Lend Your Voice,” which consists of a community web-log (blog). We’ve posed three initial questions that we would like you to respond to.
For those of you who haven’t tried blogging, it is fun and easy. You can choose to reveal your identity (real or fictional) or remain anonymous and read and respond to the comments of your colleagues. I hope that you will tune into the blog frequently to participate in web conversations about the strategic focusing initiative with others.
The University System of Georgia has given us some disappointing budget information. Our enrollment funding for FY ’07 is likely to be in negative numbers.
As many of you know, with the exception of capital projects, most new state funding to the University System of Georgia is based on enrollment growth. Under the current funding formula, the system receives new funding if enrollment increases. It loses funding if enrollment decreases. Typically, this increase or decrease in funding is passed on to institutions within the system based on their enrollment performances. New dollars for growth lag behind actual enrollment growth by several years. Similarly, loss of funding for enrollment decline also lags behind actual enrollment decline.
Several years ago, enrollment at Georgia College declined due to a number of factors. The university had eliminated some undergraduate degree programs in Macon and Warner Robins. It also implemented a freshman residency requirement and began to limit the size of the freshman class at a time during which enrollments in some off campus graduate programs had begun to fall. As a result, we are likely to face a reduction to our base budget for the next fiscal year.
I believe that some of this loss, which exceeds $600,000, will be offset by what the University System of Georgia calls strategic allocations. I have vigorously argued—and will continue to do so—that much more of our funding should be based on performance factors other than enrollment. Nonetheless, 2007 will likely be another difficult budget year.
As my vice presidents and your deans know, I want to prevent this from occurring in the future. That is why I will be asking schools to pay much closer attention to enrollment at the lower and upper division and graduates levels.
Georgia College lost a superb scholar, a free and original spirit and valued colleague and friend last week. Dr. Terry Wells, who was a member of the University Senate, left us suddenly after suffering from a heart attack. I want Terry to know—and I am sure he can hear me—how much he will be missed by his Georgia College friends and colleagues.