President’s Message — February 26, 2009


 

Dear members of the university community:

As we continue to struggle with financial challenges and the uncertainties of this economy, this week presented us with several thought-provoking developments I want to share with you today.

Governor’s proposed budget

Late last week Florida Gov. Charlie Crist released his proposed budget for 2009-10. The governor’s proposal, the first official pronouncement about next year’s budget, exempts higher education from further cuts by using federal stimulus dollars to close a substantial portion of the projected state revenue shortfall.

Whatever our view of the governor’s proposal, we must keep in mind that the budget is very much in flux and a number of things will occur before any budget is signed into law. Among them:

  • Revenue expectations will be adjusted downward at the next revenue estimating conference, formalizing an even greater shortfall.
  • Stimulus package details will become more clear.
  • The Legislature, whose regular session runs March 3rd through May 1st, will have to make decisions that produce a balanced budget.

Three-year plan going forward

We must remain creative in looking for additional sources of funds and vigilant in how we spend every dollar. In that spirit, I have decided that the vice presidents will forgo all performance bonuses this year. As you may know, earlier this year I donated to the College of Medicine and the green effort at FIU the full bonus the Board of Trustees awarded me. However, we believe that, even during hard economic times, it’s important to reward our top performers. We are moving forward with merit awards for the professional staff and AFSCME employees. Faculty members have received merit bonuses already.

Forgoing bonuses is only part of our strategy. Despite the governor’s indications, we are planning for a likely scenario of a 15 percent cut to our budget next fiscal year given the continued reductions in state revenue projections. If this becomes our reality, it means that FIU will have lost nearly 25 percent — or $50 million — of its recurring General Revenue budget in a three-year period.

As I mentioned to the leadership of the university during a presentation on Monday, we will follow the multi-year budget stabilization strategy we designed last year, which has served us well. We have been conservative in our projections and this has allowed us to absorb additional cuts made earlier this year. We continue to preserve and invest in core areas – instructional and research, faculty, student advisors, and SACS accreditation – so that the university may emerge from this crisis having sustained as little damage as possible. This year, all units will work from the multi-year plan put in place last year, and make revisions based on additional cuts.

Our plan going into 2009-10 is to tap into one-time, carryforward reserve funds in a way that provides a bridge until we reap the benefits of new revenues (particularly the projected tuition increase) and the economy recovers. This strategy will offer a measure of protection to departments from having to make more severe cuts in jobs and expenses.  In other words, though the state may be cutting our general revenue by 15 percent, we hope these measures will reduce the impact to the units by at least half. In addition, we continue to consider other saving measures such as reduced overtime opportunities, furloughs and utility shutdowns.

Please stay tuned to our weekly budget updates; I will continue to share with you developments as they occur. In the next few days, we will announce a Town Hall Meeting to discuss these issues.

Geopolitical summit

This week we hosted one of the most intellectually stimulating events we’ve had at FIU in years: The Geopolitical Summit. We brought together four of the world’s foremost foreign policy and international relations experts to discuss America’s role in the world in the next several decades.

During the one-day summit, titled “America and the Rising Powers,” our students and faculty had an opportunity to interact with Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kagan, Parag Khanna and Fareed Zakaria, all of whom have taught and written extensively on matters of international relations.

I was reassured to hear several of our guest speakers echo a sentiment I shared at Monday’s leadership meeting: America is still the greatest nation on the planet and we must not let temporal setbacks derail us from our dreams and aspirations. FIU is a microcosm of all the best in our nation and we must move forward with the conviction that we will overcome these obstacles.

I, on behalf of our sponsors, our boards, the administration and many of our guests, would like to congratulate summit organizers for putting together a world-class, thought-provoking event. Dr. John Stack, director of the School of International and Public Affairs, and his associates did an outstanding job. I was most impressed by the passion and crisp intellect that our faculty members and students brought to the discussions. My gratitude to everyone who contributed to this great success enjoyed by more than 2,000 participants.

Thank you for all you do for FIU. Please continue to share your thoughts below or email me at presmail@fiu.edu.

Modesto A. Maidique

President

 Links of interest:

 If you would like to learn more about the summit, visit http://newsarchives.fiu.edu/?p=2269.

Orlando Sentinel editorial in support of full funding for UCF and FIU medical schools. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edped251022509feb25,0,5111761.story

Miami Herald story: FIU medical school on track, seeks $11 million from state

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/922889.html

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