Eastern Ad-Hoc Budget Committee
Minutes
Dec. 2, 2011
Student Center, Room 217
11:00 a.m.

Attendance: Dave Bachand, Pat Banach (recording), Karen Collins, Dennis Hannon, Jim Howarth, Drew Hyatt, Brian Lashley, Terry Lennox, Jianhua Lin, Thomas Madera, Denise Matthews (representing ECSU AAUP), Elsa Núñez, Michael Pernal, David Stoloff, Nancy Tinker (guest)

Absent: Karyl Bulmer, Pat Christadore, David Cummings, Suzanne Dowling, Kristin Jacobi, David Mariasi, Diane Moore, Dimitrios Pachis, Katie Roome, William Salka, Robert Wolf

Meeting commenced at 11:07 am.

The minutes of the meeting of November 4, 2011 were approved.

Jim Howarth gave the FY 2012 budget update which is appended to these minutes (below).

President Núñez reiterated the need for more out of state students. This year we have 4%, but we need to have 10%. The price of tuition for out of state students is set as a percentage of the cost of in state tuition, by the Dept. of Higher Education. It would be desirable if the price for out of state students could be somewhat reduced as the cost is becoming prohibitive for some of them, thereby reducing the number that apply and enroll. Another factor in the lower number of out of state students was the out of state travel ban and its impact on sending Admissions Counselors to recruit out of state. This problem will be corrected this year. The President also said that the number of graduate students needs to be increased. The President also discussed the current status of tuition and fees.

On the plus side, the President said that tenure track positions are being filled. There are 14 searches in progress for tenure track faculty. The University does not intend to continue the practice of offering one-year full-time faculty appointments, but rather, intends to return to previous practice of offering full-time tenure-track positions. However, there are many vacancies in non-faculty positions across campus.

Terry Lennox raised the question of introducing studio fees for Visual Arts. This may be considered, as similar to lab fees in the sciences.

Nancy Tinker gave a presentation on Encelium, an energy conservation product that has been installed in Gelsi-Young, and will be installed in the Library. Encelium adjusts lighting and HVAC based on six strategies including room occupancy. All light switches have been removed. Energy consumption in Gelsi-Young was reduced by almost half from 2010 to 2011. The system also has settings to adjust light based on the amount of daylight, and supports variable load shedding during peak demand. The system comes with detailed reporting features that show energy use very finely detailed. The funding to install this system in the Library is grant funded by the State of Connecticut. The goal is to eventually be able to install this system in the Science Building as well, because it uses the most energy on campus. The payback cost of the savings on the Gelsi-Young installation is expected to be two years; for the Library five years.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 12:10 p.m.

Budget Update [from Jim Howarth, cited above.]

At this time we expect to achieve our FY 2012 Budget

Our fall semester was below expected revenues by approximately $200,000 reflecting lower tuition and fees.

Undergraduate enrollment was on target in total; however we experienced fewer out-of-state students than planned. Out-of-state students pay approximately 3 times the tuition of an instate student so the financial impact was significant.

We experienced a significant shortfall in our graduate students for the fall semester. Part time and eLearning credit hours were both above budget and are helping to offset the shortfalls identified above. It is important to note the FY 2012 budget included reduced levels of credit hours from the FY 2011 levels.

Housing experienced fewer beds however deposit forfeitures and cancellation fees combined with summer housing revenue more than offset their shortfall.

Food service revenue was higher than budget, this will also result in a greater payment to our food services provider.

We are currently reviewing personnel expenses and anticipate we will experience a reduction in fringe benefit expenses from the level included in our budget. This savings along with positions that have been held open should help to offset the revenue shortfall. Please continue to purchase what you need in support of the students and any safety items, discretionary spending should be kept to a minimum. As a reminder the Governor does have the authority for a 5% reduction at any time, the good news is the state budget appears sound.

Mid-Year Update

We are currently working on our mid-year update and will be preparing a detailed analysis of where we expect to be at the end of FY 2012 for a mid-February System Office requirement.

Tuition and Fee

We are also working on our tuition and fee request for FY 2013 and this year the System Office required each university to prepare their request based on the funding level they anticipate for FY 2013.

Through discussions, the final determination will be made for a January review and approval by the new Board of Regents for Higher Education.