In what was termed a “good news, bad news with solutions” discussion, Chancellor Pam Shockley briefed faculty and staff Nov. 19 about the university’s budget and provided a forecast of the upcoming legislative session.

“The bottom line is that we’re OK,” Shockley said. “But we must do what we can to recruit new students and to retain those students who should be here.”

“Thanksgiving and other parts of the holiday season will be much better if we believe that a strong spring enrollment – something more than 4 percent – will happen.”

Shockley outlined a $1.3 million campus revenue shortfall that resulted from lower than expected fall enrollment of non-resident students and in both the College of Business and the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Campus financial reserves were tapped to avoid asking units to return allocated funds.

“While I am not pleased by a tuition shortfall, the reality is that we’ve returned to a 10 percent reserve and are right where we should be,” Shockley said. “We made sure that nothing was done that would affect the capacity of the campus to accommodate students.”

Non-academic departments were asked to reduce spending to replenish the campus reserves, a step Shockley said was necessary as discussions continue on the funding of higher education in Colorado at the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and in the General Assembly.

CCHE has proposed increases for enrollment growth and student financial aid that will benefit CU-Colorado Springs, Shockley said. However, the CCHE proposals must be approved by the General Assembly and Gov. Bill Owens this spring before taking effect
.
“I am more encouraged that I was at this time last year,” Shockley said. “But it is way too soon to say what the outcomes will be on key components of enrollment growth funding and tuition.”

Plans are continuing for next year’s budget to include the following items
-Salary increases. “These increases will be modest,” Shockley said, “but a return to salary increases is my absolute number one priority.”
-Inflationary increases in department supply and expense budgets.
-Structural adjustments for college-based budgets.
-New tenure-track faculty and new staff positions.

Shockley also outlined plans for renovation and expansion of science and engineering facilities. The CCHE has approved a program plan for the $45 million effort that requires the university to raise $23 million.

“This is tough but I believe it is do-able,” Shockley said. “I will be committing large amounts of time to this goal.”