ASU students will suffer program cuts and a possible tuition increase if the Arizona Legislature does not pass the University's budget request.
The request totals $58 million and will be up for approval during the session that begins in January.
The funds would be divided to accommodate increases in enrollment, operation and maintenance of new buildings, and the cost of employee health care and retirement plans, said Gaye Murphy, associate director for the Office of Budget Planning and Management.
The largest chunk of ASU's request, $33.7 million, would fund enrollment growth, said Alan Carroll, associate vice president for the Office of Budget Planning and Management.
According to the State Budget Request summary, the State Legislature has fully or partially funded enrollment growth at a rate of 22 full-time students to one faculty member from 1958 through 2003. Last year, it did not approve an enrollment growth increase for the 2004 budget.
The Legislature currently is funding ASU's full-time student enrollments at 46,675 students.
In reality, enrollment at the three ASU campuses is equivalent to 52,265 full-time students. This means ASU does not have the required funding for 5,590 students, or 11 percent of the University's total enrollment.
"If we were to get enrollment growth at $33 million, it would fund most - if not all - of the enrollment growth that has occurred over the past three years," Carroll said.
However, if the Legislature denies the request for enrollment growth funding, the administration will have to find an alternative way to finance the University's increasing student population. Possible solutions to this problem could include increasing tuition or capping or reducing enrollment, Carroll said.
"We're busting at the seams. We keep getting enrollment growth but no funding," Carroll said.
Despite the lack of a funding increase in 2004, ASU gained financial responsibilities during the fiscal year, Murphy said.
New building projects, like the Lattie F. Coor building and the Intercollegiate Athletics expansion, and increases in state employee insurance premiums received no additional state funding.
ASU had to absorb the cost of rising expenditures by reallocating the existing budget, diverting funds that normally would be used to fund student programs, Murphy said.
Some of the rest of the $58 million funding request would be divided by allocating $6.6 million for employee health care, $4.4 million for the Arizona State Retirement System and $9.5 million for the operation and maintenance of new buildings. These areas also received no additional funding last year.
Cuts in the fiscal year 2002-03 budgets more than offset any enrollment growth funding the Legislature provided for those years. This compounded the allocation problem by diverting even more money away from student programs, Carroll said.
"All of this is impacting - in one way or another - academic programs," Carroll said. "We're spending money the state is obligated to give us."
The Arizona Board of Regents approved the budget request at its September meeting, Carroll said. The legislature received the budget request on Oct. 1.
Legislative and gubernatorial budget staffs currently are examining the proposal and should have recommendations for action on the request ready by the time the Legislature convenes in January.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
