December 1, 2008

President Wilson convened the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Committee at 11:40 a.m. The notes from the SPBC meeting of November 3, 2008 were accepted as presented.

I. Tuition Policy (Continued)

President Wilson reported that he had shared with CUPP the broad outline of the SPBC's discussion of budget contingencies, and it appeared that the consensus among CUPP members mirrored that of the SPBC, namely that the tuition increase should be moderated as much as possible and the corresponding reductions necessary to balance the budget should be spread across as many expenditure categories as possible.

The President proposed that the Committee consider an increase in tuition and fees of no more than 4.9 percent. That increase would be lower than the increase announced in recent years and would send a signal that it is not "business as usual" at the University. Such an increase would suggest that we are attempting to respond to the economic challenges being faced by our current and future students and their families.

Dan Klotzbach distributed a preliminary budget for 2009-2010 (Scenario #3) showing an increase of 4.9 percent in tuition and fees and tentative adjustments in expenditures that would need to be made in order to balance the budget. He pointed out that this budget would have to be reviewed again once the endowment snapshot is taken on December 31, 2008.

In order to set the tuition increase at 4.9 percent, reductions were necessary in a number of expenditure categories. After a lengthy discussion, the Committee embraced Scenario #3 featuring a tuition and fee increase of 4.9 percent. That increase will be shared with the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees on December 10 and become policy for next year following that meeting.

II. Economic Outlook (Continued)

Today's national news highlighted that the nation has been in a recession since December 2007. Given the current economic climate, we will need to give the University's budget regular attention, particularly once the endowment snapshot is taken in December and more is known about enrollment levels for the spring and fall. The budget will remain on the SPBC agenda for the balance of the year. The Committee will spend the spring semester exploring cost saving and revenue generation strategies.

At the next SPBC meeting, the Information Technology Report submitted recently by an outside consultant, Gene Spencer, will be discussed. Trey Short, Interim Associate Vice President for IT, will attend the meeting for this conversation.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:45 p.m.

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