The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks,
The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and
spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."
The University received about $193 million last year from the appropriation and income fund, but only about half of that amount went toward campus academic units.
Randy Hughes, chairman of the Budget Committee of the Faculty Senate, said the committee began investigating to determine where the money is going in light of current budget cuts.
The statistics were compiled through the SIUC Budget Office using the SIU Operating and Capital budgets, and Hughes said they were not pleased with what the numbers showed.
"We knew that colleges have been facing several cutbacks over the last couple of years," Hughes said. "But at the same time, looking at the operational budgets, we also saw that the University and the campus [funding] were fairly level, so we were trying to figure out what explains this."
From fiscal year 2002 to 2003, appropriation and income funding, which includes tuition and educational assistance funds, increased for SIUC by about $50,000, and is anticipated to increase about $500,000 in fiscal year 2004, according to the report.
Academic units on campus did not see the results of these increases, with some colleges' budgets cut by as much as 10 percent. Total funding to academic units actually decreased by about $7 million and is expected to decrease another $1.2 million for fiscal year 2004.
Budget Director Carol Henry made a presentation at the last Faculty Senate meeting to offer explanations for the discrepancy, but Hughes said she only partially explained why the numbers for the colleges may be down. Henry was unavailable for comment.
Hughes said one possible explanation is that when appropriations from the state have decreased due to the statewide budget crisis the income fund, mainly tuition, has increased.
"Tuition has balanced the cuts, but it seems that cuts in appropriations in general revenue have directly affected college budgets," Hughes said. "Tuition increases have not gone directly back to fill the decreases in the college budgets and instead control over that money now resides in other administrative levels of the University."
The appropriation and income fund only makes up one stream of revenue for the University, others being grants, contracts and donations. But the fund is the principal source of discretionary spending in the budget.
According to the report, the College of Liberal Arts received the largest cuts of 9.7 percent, or about $2.5 million, and more than half of the academic units received cuts of more than 6 percent.
The revenue is expected to decrease again in fiscal year 2004, though at a smaller increment. The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is anticipated to take the largest cut at 10.4 percent. Cuts received by all other academic units are expected to remain below 4.6 percent.
Hughes said members of the Faculty Senate expressed concern about money being transferred out of the control of the individual colleges but was unsure what action could be taken to change the current process. The committee and the senate are continuing to wait for why the academic units have faced such harsh cuts.
"Overall, the money is there, and we're not completely sure where all that money goes or how it's actually expended in the end," Hughes said. "It is clearly disproportionate, and I'm still waiting to get an adequate explanation of why it should be that way ˜ why the colleges have had to take [the highest cuts.]"
