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Chair Rye presented a resolution to be delivered to the Board. The resolution argued for an increased portion of the budget to be spent on instruction at the university. Our rate of 18% compares to 35% at our sister schools, which is a wide gap even accounting for economies of scale. The committee had met with Greg Rush to be sure it was informed about how many funds would be needed to put KSU in line with other public universities around the state. For the instruction budget to go up 1%, $400,000 would have to come from elsewhere at the university. Mr. Rush also went over the university's management plan and what the performance-based funding committee had recommended to the Governor. On front end, KSU won't lose any money, but to get more funds its enrollment will have to go up.

Chair Rye pointed out that only administrators have seen pay increases in the past year. Regent McFayden asked if those increases reflect Title III funds. He noted that salaries for new advisors on campus come from those funds. President Sipes responded that the university will have to absorb those salaries eventually. Chair Rye observed that Title III funds should be used for capacity building and not for recurring expenses. The advising staff salaries account for around $1,000,000.

President Sipes thanked the committee for its work and echoed the sentiment that faculty salaries need to be addressed, and the number of faculty overall needs to increase. She expressed concern, however, at the resolution’s request to move the instruction budget from 18% to 30%. That would be asking for something like $4.8 million coming to instruction—around 15% of next year’s expenditures—and the Board may not see that as a feasible request. Past Senate President Smith concurred and suggested dropping specific percentages in favor of asking for “incremental increase” in the instructional budget. Chair Rye expressed concern that doing so would not highlight the disparity between KSU and other universities. She went on to argue that we have lost some of our best faculty due to budgetary issues.

A motion to extend time for ten minutes passed unanimously.

VP Jackson argued that any request for more funds needs to be tied to teaching and learning and the role of faculty; the Board might read the request as simply asking for money. Past President Smith questioned whether that pre-supposes faculty at our sister institutions are doing something KSU faculty are not.

President Thompson added that as student numbers go up, the instruction budget looks different; it's not a fixed number on any campus. He agreed that the faculty deserve raises and is far behind, but faculty should present a methodology for increasing the instructional budget rather than citing a number. He said there needs to be a discussion on campus about performance funding. Given the tightness in the budget there's nowhere $4 million could be found.

Time was extended for another five minutes. All were in favor.

Chair Rye noted that when KSU did have more students there was no more spent on instruction; the university has a habit of putting money elsewhere. President Thompson observed that the percentage increase in the resolution throws it off as a true methodology. Chair Rye inquired