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February 22, 2001

Pitt slated to get parts of other state program funds

In addition to recommending a $173.3 million state appropriation for Pitt during the fiscal year that begins July 1, Gov. Tom Ridge has proposed that the University get portions of funding for various other state programs.

Ridge recommended $6 million for higher education equipment grants, which are allocated to Pennsylvania colleges and universities based on their full-time equivalent enrollments. Pitt's share would be approximately $430,000, about the same amount that the University has received through this program for the last several years.

Funding for engineering equipment grants to universities would total $1 million. Pitt's share would be $90,000.

The governor recommended providing $3 million in grants for universities installing emergency sprinklers in dormitories. Pitt Commonwealth Relations director Ann Dykstra said: "We won't know the details of this program for another couple of weeks, but the idea is that the $3 million would not actually pay for installation. Instead, it would offset the interest on loans that a college or university would take out to complete such work, so that no institution would pay more than 3 percent interest on those loans."

In May 1999, the Pittsburgh campus launched a five-year, $15 million project to install sprinklers in every dormitory room, even though the city's fire code isn't that stringent.

Students would benefit from Ridge's proposal to increase the budget for Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency need-based loans by 7 percent, to $336 million.

The Pittsburgh Super-computing Center, a partnership among Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University and Westing-house Corp., would get $2 million in state funds, the same amount as this year.

Ridge proposed increasing the budget for ethnic heritage studies by $5,000, to $165,000. In recent years, Pitt's ethnic heritage studies program automatically got about $60,000 of the total, but the governor has recommended a new system in which centers would submit grant proposals — "so we don't know at this point what our share will be," Dykstra said.

State funding for Pitt's Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Center would be $56,000, the same annual amount the center has received for the last decade.

Ridge proposed cutting funding for regional cancer centers from the current $2 million (the amount approved by the General Assembly) to $1.55 million. The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute received $600,000 in regional center funding for the current fiscal year. "We don't know yet how much the governor has in mind for UPCI for next year," Dykstra said.

Ridge has recommended $4.75 million for biotechnology research. UPMC Health System's McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development received $1 million through this fund for the current fiscal year, but it's uncertain how much the center will get next year.

The governor hasn't released details yet on his proposed, $10 million "brain gain" program to retain talented young people in Pennsylvania. The program would invest in partnerships among state government, industry and universities. "We understand it will involve a marketing campaign, various partnerships and an internship program of some sort," Dykstra said.

As for the windfall that every health-related institution in Pennsylvania is eyeing — the state's 25-year, $400 million per year share of tobacco settlement funds — specifics are still unavailable, Dykstra said.

"The focus in the General Assembly for the near future will be on developing a good process and programmatic language that will drive distribution of tobacco settlement monies over the long term," she said. "There aren't specific numbers yet on how much money might be available for research, cessation and prevention."

Pitt is lobbying for a substantial share of Pennsylvania's tobacco settlement money, arguing that breakthroughs in fighting cancer will come through research — the kind in which the University excels.

— Bruce Steele


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