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Academic Affairs receives reallocation Funds to support research activities by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff
"Because of the representations that were made to me by the provost, by the vice chancellor for Research, by the search committee for the vice chancellor for Research and by a hundred eloquent voices in this institution, we have taken the money from the academic area and we have put it back into what we see this year as the highest priority that should be funded out of the myriad of needs in the academic area," he said. As part of an announcement about the FY2001 base budget sources and uses, Scott showed how the $1.1 million moved from Academic Affairs into the reallocation pool was returned, with an additional $375,000, to the Research area in the form of increases in matching funds for research, start-up-cost monies, the Research Trust Fund allocation, and the budget of the vice chancellor for Research. Scott later said that he was happy that the administration had been able to reduce the base budget by less than originally planned and that the funds from the academic area had been returned to that area. "While that stressed the system to reduce the base budget, we believe that to provide the research area with those funds was very important," he said. "It's a way of providing focus and emphasis where we feel it needs to be made." Scott also told the senate that, although the nearly $3.1 million deficit in the base budget has been addressed this year with one-time reallocations, the remedy to such a structural deficit will need to be part of the campus's long-term plan. "It is not my plan to introduce a specific reallocation plan for one year at a time the way I had to approach it this year," he said. "Our plan now will be to phase these issues into a longer range Strategic Intent plan for the institution, [which] will ... have to be meshed with a 10-year business plan." Scott also thanked every division for its role in the opening of the academic year. Both he and interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Javier Cevallos reported that this had been the smoothest opening in years. Scott's remarks followed an address by state Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst). Story encouraged faculty to help marshal support for the University by educating students about the impact they can make by contacting their legislators about the needs of the campus. Story said legislators will make funding the University a top priority when their constituents tell them how important it is to them. "Your students are constituents of people from all over the state," she said. She also said this year's strong rankings of the campus by U.S. News and World Report and other publications could contribute to future legislative support. "The recent article about how UMass was ranked in the top 50 universities - that kind of thing plays very well in the Legislature," she said. Story said she thought recent favorable budgets for the University have come from legislators' belief that the University understands "its service commitment to the Commonwealth, which has at its heart a good, solid, substantial undergraduate education. "Capital improvements is a big issue, and there is reason to believe that there will be scrutiny of departments who are either getting new buildings or getting their current buildings upgraded and renovated to check in on how many undergraduates actually use that building." Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Cora Marrett announced that the campus had acquired 38 new faculty this year, awarded tenure to 26 and promoted 18 to full professor. The total number of faculty now stands at 1,091, she said. Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Paul Page reported that the campus had spent approximately $12 million on repairs over the summer. "We've tried to do the best we can with that limited amount of resources," he said, listing work on parking lots, roofs, fire-alarm systems, electrical generators, steam lines, and a new elevator in the Fine Arts Center, among other things. Cevallos announced that the 3,730 first-year students have an average weighted high school grade point average of 3.33, up from the 3.26 average of last year's class and that they are joined by 1,200 transfer students. "And since we are speaking of rankings," he said, "I'm happy to say that we fell off the Princeton Review party-school rankings." Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Royster Hedgepeth told the senate the current campaign total is $109.9 million. "We're
on track to reach our final goal by the end of this calendar year,"
he said. "Joe has done an absolutely terrific job in reviving the effectiveness of 'academic primary responsibility' and 'shared governance' on this campus, a direction which I will endeavor to follow with energy," said senate secretary Ernest May. "[These issues] are just as critical to the future of the faculty and the institution as the issues of salaries, working conditions, and personnel actions which are the jurisdiction of the MSP. Current hot-button issues, such as system degrees and distance learning will affect all of us now and especially in the future. "We have entered a period of greatly accelerated change in higher education. This institution's future will not be a simple extrapolation of the past. I urge faculty - especially women and minorities who are underrepresented on several of our councils and committees - to express their preferences to the Senate Office and get active in the work of the senate during the coming year." Jane Giacobbe, Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP) president, reported that she has been invited to be on the Transition Advisory Board that is assisting the President's Office with developing UMass Online, the University system's distance learning initiative. Giacobbe said she has repeatedly expressed concern that there is only one faculty senator from the five campuses on the board. Faculty senate representation in the process is important, she said. The senate elected Sociology professor Roland Chilton to the Rules Committee. |
