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Date 4-21-06
Contact Margie Jepson 601-266-4491
HATTIESBURG—The
University of Southern Mississippi, with the approval of the Board
of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL), was
granted a tuition increase of 5.5%. Merit raises were fully funded
at 5% for faculty and staff. Even with the $1M additional funding
to Southern Miss for Katrina and an additional incremental amount
of $450,000 from the legislature, Southern Miss reports shortfalls
exceeding $9M related to Hurricane Katrina.
“We have been
asked to tighten our belts – again – just when we’ve had the shirt
blown off our backs,” said Dr. Shelby F. Thames, president of the
University of Southern Mississippi, after yesterday’s IHL Board
of Trustees meeting.
Southern Miss
is short of financial projections due to enrollment declines coupled
with re-opening costs incurred at coastal sites such as the Gulf
Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs and the Gulfport Student
Center. Southern Miss has over 1,800 students enrolled on the coast
this spring at all locations.
“We will continue
to graduate more Mississippians. We will continue to graduate more
PhD’s than any other university in the state. And, we will continue
to ask for additional appropriations to backfill our Katrina losses,”
added Thames. We are pleased about raises for our quality faculty
and staff but we will be pursuing other efficiency measures and
program reviews on campus to insure that Southern Miss remains financially
strong,” he concluded.
OVERVIEW
OF FUNDING FROM IHL MEETING APRIL 20
General
- 5.5% tuition
increase approved for all institutions
- Room and
board increases approved for Southern Miss
- 11% out of
state tuition increase approved for Southern Miss
Faculty and
Staff
- Raises fully
funded for 5% (previously only funded 3.75%)
- Raises based
on merit
Energy
- 1% surcharge
for energy costs
Summary
Legislature
approved for IHL $90.5M
Amount to
raises $60.3M
Amount to
UM Medical Center $17.3M
Other subsidies
$8.9M
Total
remaining to distribute to other IHL institutions: $4M
Additional
given to Southern Miss for Katrina relief $1M
Amount to
MS Valley and Ole Miss for equity funding $1M
Amount
to be split among other institutions $2M
Southern Miss portion $450,000
Total additional funding to Southern Miss – Katrina and IHL additional:
$1.45M
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