University Times

Acting for the entire Board of Trustees, the board's executive committee on July 19 approved a fiscal year 1997 budget for Pitt of $838.6 million. The budget includes an increase in the salary pool of 3.5 percent — a 2.5 percent increase for those employees satisfactorily with an additional 1.0 percent available for merit increases.

For Pitt faculty and staff making $35,000 per year or more, it is the first pay increase in two years. The raises are retroactive to July 1, but due to accounting procedures will not appear in paychecks until September.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said that Pitt's salary pool increase of 3.5 percent is comparable to planned increases at other universities in the region.

A check with public relations' offices at local universities shows that Penn State gave a 1.5 percent across-the-board increase and a 1.5 percent merit increase this year; Duquesne University gave a 3.5 percent merit increase, and Carnegie Mellon gave a 3 percent merit increase and a 0.5 percent equity and promotion. All of those institution, however, also granted pay raises to their employees last year.

Total compensation in Pitt's budget is projected to increase by $1.6 million to $449 million, according to the budget report. The increase includes a $6 million reduction in the general compensation base and the 3.5 percent increase in the compensation pool.

To the extent possible, according to the report, reductions in the compensation base or workforce will be made through attrition. However, there also will be "targeted reductions in the workforce" and possibly an early retirement package.

The budget also includes a 4.5 percent tuition hike. Nordenberg praised the budget for keeping Pitt's tuition hike lower than the increases at Pennsylvania's other state-related universities. Pitt's 4.5 percent tuition increase means that in-state full-time undergraduate students will pay $5,416 this year and out-of-state students will pay $11,776.

Penn State has announced a tuition increase of 4.74 percent in FY97 and Temple, 5.9 percent. Other local schools that have announced tuition hikes include West Virginia University, 5 percent, and Duquesne University, 6.5 percent.

The State System of Higher Education approved a 4.5 percent tuition hike. The state system increase brings tuition for undergraduate in-state students at schools like California, Indiana, Clarion, Slippery Rock and Edinboro to $3,368 per year and for out-of-state students to $8,566 per year.

Carnegie Mellon University will increase its tuition by only 4.3 percent this year, but its cost last year was $18,700.

Revenue from student tuition is projected to increase from $215.9 million last year to $224.8 million this year. The increase is based on an enrollment of 27,323 full-time-equivalent students in FY97, which is an increase of 460 students over last year.

A portion of the tuition increase, $1.25 million, will be used to improve student life through such things as better access to computing resources, expanded recreational facilities, improved campus safety, and better tutorial and other support services.

The FY97 budget also includes a 12 percent or $7.7 million increase in financial aid, pushing that total to $71.7 million, and a $1.3 million increase in the University's state appropriation.

"In light of the competing demands presented to the state legislature and the governor, we are grateful for the 1 percent increase in our base appropriation," Nordenberg said. "However, that increase will be more than offset by the rising costs of operation and almost certainly mean that Pennsylvania once again will rank among the bottom five states in terms of per capita support for higher education."

–Mike Sajna