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Visions for 2008: Delivering the Promises <- You Are Here
VISIONS FOR 2008: DELIVERING THE PROMISES (contd.)
Operating Budget
Much of UM's progress is credited to the support provided by the legislature. High rankings, climbing graduation rates, outstanding faculty and ever-expanding partnerships are all the results of its investment in the University. However, to continue the upward progress
and to fulfill the State's mandate for national eminence, we need adequate operating funds.
For more than a decade, State Appropriations for the campus have been more than $3,000 less per student than the State's guideline, the average of the University's peers6. This guideline provides a clear and reasonable measure of the amount of funding needed for a nationally eminent flagship. (See Figure 11). The Funding Gap in FY07 was reduced to $2,800 per student. However, the FY08 Governor's budget increases the funding deficit to $3,200 per student. Overall, the total campus operating deficit is about $100 million annually.
The average funding per student (tuition plus state General Fund appropriation per student) at peer institutions projected by MHEC for FY08 is $26,700 and rises to $28,800 in FY12. To close the funding gap requires a combination of increases in tuition and increases in State General Fund appropriation. (Figure 12).
6 Peer universities are those in the upper echelon of national state flagship universities in accordance with State policy. They include: U. North Carolina-Chapel Hill, U. Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, U. Michigan-Ann Arbor, U. California-Los Angeles, and U. California-Berkeley.
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