November 24, 2008

I. Economic Outlook (Continued)

President Wilson convened the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Committee meeting at 12:10 p.m. The objectives for this meeting were to continue the conversations concerning the 2009-2010 tuition and fee proposal and budget contingency plans.

President Wilson distributed a page from the November 28, 2008, Chronicle of Higher Education. The article showed results of a survey of colleges around the country that recently announced hiring freezes, construction delays, and other cost-cutting measures due to the recent endowment losses and economic downturn.

Dan Klotzbach distributed two budget scenarios to the Committee and explained what the scenarios would entail depending on various tuition increases and fluctuating economic circumstances. The Committee engaged in an extensive discussion of each budget scenario and the implications for the University community.

II. Tuition Policy (Continued)

The Committee was supportive of the idea to keep the tuition increase in the range of 5 percent and thus well below the 6.5 percent maximum approved by the Board of Trustees at the October 27, 2008 meeting. An increase of approximately 5 percent would signal that we are trying to keep tuition low, but would require some reductions in budgeted items in order for income and expenditures to balance. More discussion of these reductions will occur at the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 p.m.

Distributed to all faculty and staff: Dec. 22, 2008