Budget Town Hall set for May 19

President Mark B. Rosenberg extended this invitation to the FIU community:

Now that the legislative session has come to an end, it is time for us to come together to discuss how decisions made in Tallahassee will affect our students, faculty and staff.

Pres. Rosenberg at a 2010 Budget Town Hall

A Budget Town Hall Meeting has been scheduled for 2 p.m., Thursday, May 19, at the MARC Pavilion at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

The meeting will be broadcast live on the internet. If you are not able to make it in person, you may tune in from a computer anywhere.

To view the webcast please visit http://webcast.fiu.edu/. During the meeting we will take questions from the audience as well as via email.  You may submit your questions to presmail@fiu.edu. Please be sure to include your name and department in your message and make the subject line “Budget.”

While the details of our 2011-2012 budget are still being analyzed, it is clear that FIU will have to absorb a $13 million cut in recurring general revenue and some unfunded additional operational costs. This revenue reduction will be offset by a small increase in state lottery funds, and a mandated 8 percent tuition increase supplemented by an expected 7 percent tuition differential increase. The tuition increase amounts to less than $18 per credit hour.

The Legislature also has mandated that state employees contribute 3 percent of their salaries toward retirement, which means a reduction in take-home pay for most employees.

In addition to this Budget Town Hall meeting, we are planning a series of human resources workshops that will be announced soon.
 Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this important Budget Town Hall meeting next Thursday, so that we may have a conversation about the allocation of scarce resources in the coming year.