University of Virginia Library

The Budget

Financial reports, with their skimpy
language and long columns of figures, seldom
make interesting reading. One of that type is
generally the University's budget and the
correspondence with the General Assembly
that goes along with it. This year, however,
the figures and the correspondence take on
added import, for they indicate that the
University's future development may be in
jeopardy.

Last fall, when the University made its
requests for the coming biennium, President
Shannon and Comptroller Shea made it quite
clear that the figures submitted (to the
outgoing Godwin administration) were the
minimum requests that the University could
make and still hope to fulfill its commitments
in education over the next two years and in
development over the next decade. The
requests were divided into two sectors
operations and maintenance and capital
outlay.

The capital outlay request totaled $23
million, of which some $19 million was
earmarked for new buildings and planning
expenses for the University (exclusive of the
Medical Complex, for which $2.6 million was
requested) at Charlottesville. The money
would help to pay for new buildings for the
School of Law, the Graduate School of
Business Administration, the Physics
Department, and the Social Sciences, as well
as renovation of several existing structures and
a new computer: there were further, smaller
requests for funds to finance planning
expenses for future projects.

Governor Godwin's budget, due primarily
to the current rates of interest which preclude
the sale of bonds, denied this request in its
entirety.

The second part of the University's request
was $49 million for maintenance and
operating expenses. (The total M&O budget
projection was $62 million, but the
University's fees and tuition will pay for $13
million of that.) Out of this fund, the
University pays for faculty salaries, salaries of
all other personnel, the library, and all other
maintenance expenses.

The Godwin budget slashed the
University's request by $11 million. It cut
$6.5 million from funds requested to finance
new faculty positions; $2 million was pared
from the $7 million requested to buy books
and hire more staff members for the Library;
$1.5 million was cut from the request for
general expenses which included positions for
more administrators in student services.

Last week, President Shannon went to
Richmond to meet the Appropriations
Committee of the House of Delegates in an
effort to persuade the legislatures to restore
some of the cuts in response to the "urgent
needs" of the University for the coming
biennium. Of the $23 million in capital outlay
funds which the Godwin budget denies, the
President requested the restoration of $3.3
million - $2.8 million for a new and vitally
necessary computer, and some $500,000 for
planning expenses. Scientific and engineering
studies at the University are becoming more
and more handicapped by lack of computer
resources; the University ranks with the very
dregs of Southern education with respect to
these necessary research tools. The new
computer would allow the University to hook
up with the Regional Scientific Computer
System, and would thus help avert a serious
void in facilities here on the Grounds. The
extra half million dollars would give the
University a second chance in meeting the
pressures that increased enrollment will bring
in the late '70s; without the money to at least
go forward on the planning of new buildings,
there is little or no chance that this challenge
can be met successfully.

But ever more drastic were the cuts in the
maintenance and operation budget, totalling
$11 million. When the President spoke to the
Appropriations Committee, he asked for a
modest restoration totalling a bit over $2
million. Half of the money would be used to
finance new faculty positions, 24 next term
and three the following year. Another half
million dollars is needed, according to Mr.
Shannon, to provide an across-the-board five
per cent salary increase for faculty members,
an increase needed to keep real faculty salaries
from falling due to inflation. A similar
amount must be restored to enable the
University to hire desperately-needed staff in
student services and the Library.

As Mr. Shannon pointed out, these are
indeed urgent requests. Restoration of the
cuts will be necessary if the University is to
keep from falling backward, let alone move
forward.

And yet, the Assembly must consider the
even more pressing needs of other state
facilities. The mental hospitals are cruelly
under financed. George Mason College, with
some 5,000 students, has a library which
totals only 43,000 volumes, a situation that
few high schools would countenance for long.
"Pay-as-you-go" financing is finally catching
up with Virginia, placing the University in a
position where it is if it does and
damned if it doesn't. Education here will
suffer if the funds are not restored, and yet
one cannot pass Western State Mental
Hospital and then complacently ask the
Assemble to deprive it of funds in order that
the University might grow.

Thus, a tuition increase to offset the cut
made in the maintenance and operating
budget is increasingly likely. VPI took such a
step a couple of days ago; it might even be
said that the University is due for such an
increase. Tuition, during a time in which
education costs have been rising steadily, has
remained the same for four years at the
University; it would be unreasonable to
expect this pleasant state of affairs to last
forever, and the state legislators are probably
going to tell the University exactly that.

When it comes, the tuition increase will
undoubtedly hit out-of-state students harder
than Virginians, but everyone is going to feel
the pinch. And, after all, it is only realistic to
expect to have to pay more for increased
services. We hope, however, that the bump
will not be too jolting. The University, as far
as out-of-state students is concerned, has been
a $3,000-a-year school. A substantial increase
might make it unavailable to many students.

We would hope, then, that the University's
financial needs be met by a combination of
more state funds and a modest tuition
increase. Certainly, the Assembly ought to
restore the funds that the President has asked;
just as certainly, the University cannot
hesitate to raise its fees if that becomes
necessary to move forward into the '70s.

The Assembly will be deciding within the
month on the University's restoration request.
Thought the men in Richmond might find
pressure from "thugs" (to use our dear
departed Rector's term) distasteful, it might
still be a good idea for the Student Council
and other interested groups to make their
support of the President's request known to
the Assembly. If Virginia is going to meet its
responsibilities, it will find the money
somewhere.