Approved 04/19/04

Campus Assembly Budget Committee

Monday, March 8, 2004

3:04-3:30 pm – Regents Room

Present:   Mary Allen, Lynn Bye, Greg Fox, Josh Jacobsen, Lori Johnson, Pat Keenan, Gordon Levine, Jerry Lin, Zhuangyi Liu, Dave Mohrman

Excused:   Robert Appleton, Tom Bacig, Tom Johnson, Edmond Lundstrom, Robert Repinski, Harry Zabrocki

Absent:   Bruce Gildseth, Raymond Raab, Student Assoc. Rep. (replacing Chase Franzen)

1.    Approval of February 2, 2004 Meeting Minutes

The minutes were approved as provided.

2.    February Forecast / Gov. Pawlenty's 2004-05 Supplemental Budget

Members were provided with copies of the Department of Finance summary on the February economic forecast.

Greg told members that there was some good news in the summary as it showed a $21M improvement over the November forecast. He also noted that the report indicated that Minnesota was seeing better job growth and less manufacturing job losses than the US average.

However, he noted that the state was in decent shape for 2006-07 except for the fact that compensation increases are not built into the budget. On balance he reported that short term there is no need for major midyear corrections, but long term there is still a budget problem.

Members were also provided with a copy of Governor Pawlenty's PowerPoint presentation on the 2004-05 Supplemental Budget.

Greg said that the Governor's plan, which solves a $160M deficit, cuts $20M from the Higher Education Services Office, almost all of it related to excess funds in the student financial aid budget. The Governor stated that HESO is currently funded beyond student requests for financial aid. It also cuts $1.5M from reciprocity programs. On March 10, 2004 , Greg and Chancellor Martin were to have met with Susan Heegaard, the newly appointed director of HESO, to discuss this and other matters. (This meeting has since been cancelled.)

3.    Miscellaneous Updates

With respect to the status of bonding bills, Greg noted that the Senate Higher Ed. Budget Division was meeting on March 9, 2004 , and would be reviewing the three UMD requests. The House Higher Ed. Committee had already passed their bill, fully funding the Life Science Building request, providing $4M for Rec. Sports (with a stipulation that $4M each be matched by the students and the University), and $1M for the Labovitz School of Business and Economics (requesting that the University ask donors to contribute the balance).

Greg mentioned that tuition for fall and spring appears to be right on budget despite increased enrollment. It would have seemed that tuition revenue should be higher, owing to the increase in student numbers, and this is being reviewed.

Greg asked members to offer recommendations on student impact on housing in Duluth , as the recently defeated ordinance is likely to resurface in another form. Members offered that the best thing that could happen is for the private sector to build multi-unit housing.

Finally, Twin Cities security staff had requested our plans to prevent a riot in the event the UMD hockey team wins the Final 4. He requested that if members have suggestions that they forward them to him.

The next Budget Committee meeting will be Monday, April 19, 2004 , from 3-4:30 p.m. , in the Regents Room.

Respectfully submitted,

Joan Erickson

Handouts:   Minnesota Department of Finance “February 2004 Economic Forecast Summary” and Governor Tim Pawlenty's PowerPoint presentation, “FY 2004-05 Supplemental Budget.” Agenda provided by e-mail on 03/08/04 . Draft minutes provided by e-mail on 03/01/04 .

To Wendy Larrivy and webmaster on 04/28/04.