Members Present: College of the Arts: K. Davis. College of Business: D. Duhon, T. Green, S. Magruder, R. Smith. College of Education & Psychology: S. Alber, J. Olmi, J. Palmer, J. Rachal. Gulf Park: D. Alford, J. Smith. College of Health & Human Sciences: M. Forster, S. Hubble, M. Nettles. College of Liberal Arts: K. Austin, D. Cabana, A. Jaffe, A. Kaul, S. Oshrin, G. Stringer. College of Marine Sciences: J. Lytle. College of Nursing: E. Harrison. College of Science & Technology: D. Beckett, B. Coates, M. Cobb, M. Lux, L. McDowell. University Libraries: T. Graham, S. Laughlin.

Members Represented by Proxy: College of the Arts: D. Douglas (K. Davis) S. Nielsen (K. Davis). College of Liberal Arts: D. Goff (A. Kaul), A. Jaffe (D. Hunt). College of Nursing: J. Butts (E. Harrison). College of Science & Technology: D. Dunn (M. Lux), G. Rayborn (M. Henry).

Members Absent: College of Education & Psychology: E. Lundin. College of Health & Human Sciences: S. Graham-Kresge. College of International & Continuing Education: M. Miller. College of Liberal Arts: M. Dearmey, J. Meyer, W. Scarborough. College of Science & Technology: C. Hoyle, D. McCain.

1. Call to Order. President Laughlin called the meeting to order at 12:35 p.m.

2.0 Approval of Agenda. The agenda was approved as distributed.

3.0 Minutes Approval. Minutes of the March meeting were approved as distributed.

4.1 President’s Report. Pres. Laughlin indicated that the meeting would need to be brief due to President Fleming’s 2 p.m. convocation, and delivered the following report:

As you have probably heard in the media, at its meeting yesterday in Jackson, the IHL Board approved a 15% increase in tuition. Commissioner Layzell recommended a 10% increase, reasoning that this was probably the first of two or three years of increases. The President’s Council, however, asked that the increase be 15%, and after much discussion the Board gave the Presidents what they requested. This will not cover all of our lost revenue. For USM, this tuition increase will bring in approximately $4.4 million in additional revenue.

After the 15% increase was approved, USM withdrew its request for the $91 parity tuition adjustment. There was strong agreement that it was very unlikely that we would get the additional adjustment at this meeting. We will go back at a later date and make this request.

The Board did not approve the universities’ allocations yesterday, so we don’t know exactly what our allocation will be, although we know a ballpark figure. At issue—and the reason the allocation decision was delayed until May--is $5 million in Comprehensive Base Adjustment. Over the past three years, the three comprehensives have received a $15 million increase in their base budgets to correct funding inequities ($2 million each to USM and Mississippi State and $1 million to Ole Miss each year). At the meeting yesterday, there were questions about how to compute those adjustments in this year’s allocations and what the legislative intent was in making these adjustments. As a result, the allocation decisions were postponed until the May meeting.

Another reason that this postponement is important is that we do not have a decision on whether or how much of our appropriation the Board will require us to hold back. If you will think back to the meeting when Senator Farris discussed the Legislative appropriations with us—he talked about $25 million in "bridge" money that the Legislature had found for IHL from various sources. All of this bridge money is one time, and there are strong indications that IHL will require each university to hold back some or all of this one time money. The state’s revenues are still trending downward, and it is possible that IHL will be required to return money to the state as early as next fall. USM’s portion of this one time bridge money is $4.6 million. Given the uncertain condition of the state’s economy and predictions that next year will be even worse, it is very likely that some or all of these one time funds will not be budgeted.

There are also about $1.3 million in fixed expense increases that have to be budgeted, including such items as utilities, faculty/staff promotion raises, health insurance premium increases, FEMA insurance and Social Security increases.

For the past three weeks, Sue Hubble and I have been attending meetings with the President and the Vice Presidents about the budget. Most of the time in these meetings has been spent in getting educated about the University’s budget and in hearings with the budget authorities across the University. Our discussions so far have been very general and big picture.

There have been no decisions about how the cuts will be made, although these discussions will continue next week and will probably get much more specific. At this point, I believe the things that are vulnerable are vacant positions, salary recovery accounts, and research in-directs.

You also need to be aware that if cuts are made across the board, there are some units that do not have the position vacancies or salary savings to make their share of the cut. This includes units on both the academic and the non-academic sides of the university.

J. Olmi: Are positions that have recently become open considered "vacant"? President Laughlin: Yes. In addition, positions deliberately left vacant are called "salary recovery," and money related to those positions is also vulnerable.

J. Palmer: What does a $7.4 million cut mean percentage-wise? President Laughlin: I’m not certain.

D. Duhon: I have heard that Ole Miss will not raise tuition a full 15%. Do you know if that is true? President Laughlin: It is expected that most universities will go to 15%. It is not clear if IHL approved a range, or a flat 15% increase.

G. Stringer: Was there any result from the resolution on the budget passed at last month’s Senate meeting? President Laughlin: The resolution emphasized the central importance of the provost in the budget decisions. Provost Griffin is chairing the budget meetings. At this point no decisions have been made, but I believe that Academic Affairs is most vulnerable to cuts.

D. Duhon: How will the administration proceed given IHL did not finalize the budget? President Laughlin: The administration must move ahead. President Fleming has to report to IHL in May on how he will make cuts, even though the official allocation of funds has not been determined.

J. Smith: A legislator told me that most legislators believe that the budget reduction can be made up largely through cutting travel funds. President Laughlin: I believe that the Legislative Budget Office developed its reduction figure after reviewing vacancies and travel funds within the university system.

J. Olmi: It is important to distinguish travel funded by grants and contracts from that funded through legislative appropriation.

M. Cobb: Will it be possible to fill any vacant positions? President Laughlin: The administration is aware that some positions will need to be filled to meet critical needs.

K. Davis: Will program accreditations be protected? President Laughlin: I don’t know. There was some talk about accreditation yesterday at the IHL meeting; the general feeling seems to be that accreditations should not be jeopardized.

M. Forster: What will be the budgeting process from this point forward? President Laughlin: There is a meeting scheduled for Monday, and I believe we’ll be getting down to real numbers quickly. Beyond that, I am not sure what the process will be.

T. Green: Has there been any consideration given to the possibility that enrollment will drop more than expected? President Laughlin: No, but there is a fairly high level of confidence that enrollment will hold.

At approximately 1:10 p.m. a senator requested that discussion on the budget situation continue off the record. Discussion continued off-record until approximately 1:30 p.m.

Returning to the record, D. Duhon complimented President Laughlin on doing an excellent job under difficult circumstances. President Laughlin was roundly applauded.

President Lauglin distributed for senators’ consideration a Draft Proposed Policy for Teaching Overload. The proposal is being advanced by the Gulf Park administration.

SL departed for the convocation at approximately 1:30 p.m., at which time President-Elect Hubble assumed the chair.

4.2 President-Elect’s Report. S. Hubble requested that committee chairs henceforth retain records of significant committee business and procedures both in hard copy and on disk for the sake of continuity and to facilitate transitions of committee leadership and membership. In addition, she announced formation of a nominating committee to identify candidates for the officer positions of President-Elect and Secretary-Elect; members of the committee are D. Goff, T. Green, M. Lux, and J. Palmer.

4.3 Secretary’s Report. No report.

4.4 Secretary-Elect’s Report. D. Alford read the proxies received. [See "Members Represented by Proxy," above.]

5.6 Faculty Welfare. J. Rachal requested that action on the resolution regarding travel vendors be postponed until next month’s meeting. J. Olmi reminded senators to notify him of faculty leaving the university for any reason.

5.7 Constitution and Bylaws. R. Smith requested that action on committee recommendations for constitution and bylaw changes be postponed until next month’s meeting.

6. Old Business. There was no old business.

7.0 New Business. There was no new business.

8. 0 Announcements. A. Kaul announced that Ward Symonds of the Mississippi Association of Educators will discuss the possible formation of a MAE higher education chapter on Monday from 3 to 5 p.m. in Gonzales auditorium. B. Coates announced that M. Dearmey has been selected as the interim AAUP president by the membership at a recent meeting.

9.0 Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 1:41 p.m.

Minutes prepared by Michael Forster, Faculty Senate Secretary