April 3, 2008

In our efforts to communicate the latest budget developments here and in Tallahassee in a timely manner, the university is disseminating weekly budget updates from President Modesto A. Maidique. These communiques are sent to our students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors, FIU Board of Trustees, Foundation Board of Directors, President's Council, select media, elected officials and other interested parties. We believe that timely information on a topic of such critical importance will benefit the entire university community and help to continue the university's forward momentum.
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In This Issue:

Dear members of the FIU community:

We have been proactive in advocating for the university in Tallahassee and diligent in finding ways to absorb the impact of the state budget cuts while minimizing the impact on our students.

In an effort to keep you informed and involved in this process, please make a note of the following opportunities to participate.

Next Wednesday, April 9, Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Vivian Sanchez will meet with USPS employees at 12:30 in GL 265 at University Park. The meeting will be simulcast to the Biscayne Bay Campus. I ask that supervisors allow USPS employees time to attend this meeting.

On Monday, April 14, we will have a university-wide town hall meeting. This town hall meeting will take place in the Graham Center Ballrooms at University Park and will be simulcast to the Biscayne Bay Campus, exact location to be announced. Please plan to attend.

Please note that the meeting originally scheduled for this Friday, April 4 with the administration leadership of the university has been canceled and the faculty assembly initially scheduled for April 14 has been combined with this town hall meeting.

At this town hall meeting we will present a series of recommendations for actions we must take in order to survive the current budget crisis without doing permanent strategic damage to the core mission of the university.

None of the recommendations discussed at the town hall meeting will become final until they go through a process that includes review by the Faculty Senate, the Budget Stabilization Taskforce and ultimate approval by our Board of Trustees.

In addition, at the town hall meeting, we will discuss the restructuring of some administrative areas, where we can realize almost immediate savings. We also plan to discuss the reorganization of certain academic areas, including centers and institutes. As I’ve mentioned before, these cuts must be strategic rather than across the board. They are part of a long-term plan that responds to anticipated diminished revenues at the state level that are expected to play out over the next three years.

A second town hall meeting will take place in May, after the legislative session closes, when we will have greater understanding of the sate of our finances and plan going forward. At that point we will discuss further adjustments needed in programs, departments and operations.

This week in Tallahassee, the news was better than it has been in past days. But in addition to decisions regarding E&G funding, including funds to support our nascent College of Medicine, we are actively engaged in a number of bills that could affect some of our other streams of revenue.

For example: a potential six percent tuition increase is being discussed, along with mandatory set asides for financial aid; a bill to limit what we can charge for online courses that could affect us negatively in a significant manner; differential tuition and greater flexibility to set graduate tuition; matching funds for major gifts; as well as funds for construction projects (PECO and CITF) still hang in the balance.

Whatever the reduction ends up being, the state is not contemplating the allocation of funds for basic maintenance and mandatory compliance issues. Therefore, we will have to make even greater cuts to our budget in order to cover these, including increased utility bills. We also need to continue to make modest investments in strategic initiatives such as graduate education, undergraduate advising, and safety and security; and set aside some funds for faculty and staff salary increases.

This is one of the most complicated and difficult legislative sessions of the twenty-one I have participated in and certainly the one where we have the most at stake. I will continue to keep you informed of new developments in the coming weeks.

To that end, we have created a webpage on budget developments, http://www.fiu.edu/pres/budgetcrisis.htm. It includes answers to some of the questions we have received in response to This Week @ FIU, my weekly newsletter, in addition to copies of the newsletter and slide presentations.

We want everyone in the university community to be well-informed and included in this process. As such, I would like to ask supervisors with employees who might not have access to computers to please find a way to give those employees access to this weekly newsletter.

It is my hope that we will emerge from this process stronger as a university and as a community. I welcome your continued communication and sharing of ideas, because as you can see, we still have a long way to go in this season of decision-making. Please send me your thoughts at presmail@fiu.edu.

Here is a timeline of some upcoming events involving the budget:

Links of interest:

FIU Governmental Relations page
http://government.fiu.edu/default.asp

New budget crisis web site
http://www.fiu.edu/pres/budgetcrisis.htm

Budget cuts lock more out of state universities
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/479463.html