University of Virginia Library

Study Cites Lack
Of Increased Funds

By CHRIS DONART

A recent survey cites the University as
an institution failing to receive sufficient
state appropriations to maintain current
operations.

The study, currently being conducted
by the National Association of State
Universities and Land-Grant Colleges,
warns that the "money shortage plaguing
major state universities and land-grant colleges
will be even more severe during the 1971-1972
academic year."

Appropriations Short

The University is name as one of 28
state-supported institutions with "standstill
state appropriations." The association has
calculated the need for an average annual
increase of 10 per cent in a university's
operating budget to maintain a current level of
service. This figure takes into account factors of
inflation and increasing enrollment. The
University's state appropriations have increased
by only 9.15 per cent.

Although included among those institutions
failing to receive state appropriations calculated
as essential, the University was not named
among those with operating budgets below the
required per cent increase.

The study concludes that "state
appropriations - the chief source of public
university revenue-are becoming increasingly
stringent. Slim operating budgets, often related
to reductions in state appropriations, also
foretell a deepening fiscal crisis." The effects of
the Nixon Administration anti-inflation
campaign have not yet been measured,
according to the association.

Constantly Climbing Enrollment

The study equates the financial problems of
universities with the inflationary problems of
the national economy. These problems have
been complicated, the association states, by
'constantly climbing enrollment."

"University resources," the survey
continues, "become less adequate each year to
cope with these growing, demands. Simple
comparisons of the number of universities
reporting standstill state appropriations and
standstill operating budgets in 1970-71 and
1971-72 quickly show that the campus
situation has grown much more critical since
Fall 1970."

Fifty-six per cent of the early responses in
the current survey received state appropriations
below the ten per cent standstill requirement.
In last year's study, 38.5 per cent of those
polled received less than the 10 per cent
increase.

Extreme economy measures, made
necessary by cuts in appropriations," the report
continues," often mean overcrowded
classrooms, a smaller choice of courses, fewer
teachers and a dearth of new programs."

Unusual Steps Taken

The number of institutions operating in the
red, according to the study, would have been
much larger if universities had not taken
unusual steps to avert deficits. These measures,
the survey explained, could in many cases be
made only once.

"When state appropriations to public
universities decline or remain static," the survey
concludes, "academic quality is seriously
threatened."