MSU President, Randy Dunn

Greetings for this week.

As I’ve mentioned already, this will be my last Roundabout column before taking my traditional summer hiatus from the weekly grind of writing. Actually, I’m kvetching a little bit for dramatic effect here—if I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t do it! But I also don’t mind a short breather from this deadline the same time every week (as I compose this on a beautiful Thursday afternoon when I would actually like to get out in my Jeep).

I’ll be back in form and writing again beginning with the Friday, August 17, 2012 edition of RM—with a column to kick-off the new academic term just in advance of Great Beginnings move-in weekend (Fall 2012 classes begin on Tuesday, August 21). Tony Powell and other University Communications staffers will likely provide some interesting column filler in this space for the summer versions. But rest assured that if any big issues arise throughout the next three months where a communication to the MSU Community becomes necessary (e.g., budget updates…some emergency situation…me winning the lottery…etc.), I’ll make sure to provide such here and elsewhere.

In going back over past years’ columns from these corresponding May dates, I’ve noted that my final few columns each season have tended to provide a summary or wrap-up on things like the University Budget (ours for FY13 is set to be adopted by our Board of Regents when they meet on June 1), and the impact of the University’s Strategic Imperatives over the year, and those major campus improvement and renovation projects planned for the upcoming summer. Each of these topics by itself has typically provided enough fodder to fill a complete column—but as I’ve said, I’m shutting it off as of this week.

So I’ve decided instead to dedicate a few paragraphs below to each item for this final column, by way of covering some of the general updates you would expect. Because of this, today’s column will run a little longer than usual (I know, that’s hard to believe…), so bear with me to the end.

University Budget – Next week we’ll be sending off our 600+ page draft budget document to be printed and put in the hands of our Board to start reviewing in advance of their meeting two weeks from now. With the loss of nearly $3.3 million from our state appropriations starting in 2012-13, it’s been a tough budget to get completed. The Board’s 4% tuition increase—approved on April 27—comes close to offsetting the loss in state money…but not quite. To wit: We are projecting $3,241,840 in added net revenue (remember, we “give back” almost 40% of new tuition gross revenue in scholarships, discounts, and waivers), while the exact loss from our state funding is $3,282,400…giving us a shortage of just over $40,000.

However—like every year—2012-13 will see a notable increase in expenditures too. Even though the Board has determined no across-the-board or merit raises will be given, the amount that MSU will spend on salaries is still expected to increase by around $300,000 due to such things as promotions, the final year of implementation of the hourly staff wage study, job audits and added duties, and the like. Fringe benefit costs to the University (driven primarily by health insurance and MSU’s share of retirement contributions) are slated to grow by $600,000. Fixed costs continue to increase as well.

All told—as of now—the FY13 University Budget, beginning on July 1, is showing a $1.786 million deficit. I am recommending to our Regents that we utilize a portion of our carryforward operating reserves to get through this next year only. (The $1.786 million will take roughly 28.5% of those carryforwards set aside for this purpose—and assuming everything else holds—we’ll examine releasing a small portion of those back to the campus units earlier in the new fiscal year.)

Obviously, we can’t continue deficit spending every year. (Sorry…we aren’t the U.S. Government.) As I’ve alluded to previously, then, I’ll be asking the Board to charge me with putting together a number of (as I’ve taken to calling them) Planning and Budget Review Teams that would work over the course of the coming months to re-priortize programs and services such that reallocations can be facilitated and new revenue can be gained. And the importance of this task will go well beyond just getting past a deficit budget—rather, this process is also about freeing-up monies to have the ability over future years to fund salary increases, allow for new program development, and preserve our facilities…without being whip-sawed to the degree we are now by the biennial budget process in Kentucky.

Coming out of the Board’s June 1 meeting, we’ll post the summary budget Powerpoint presentation to my website and also provide the link in Roundabout Murray for those who may be interested.

Strategic Imperatives – Dedicated followers of the campus scene know we expanded the definition of these Imperatives this year—in fact, such was the focus of my State of the University address last October—to more fully reflect what we’re trying to accomplish institutionally by having them. In addition to the departmental/unit goals that are developed under the Imperatives, you also know that we try take on one or two large-scale, University-wide, high-impact initiatives that are reflective of each of the Imperatives.

Under Excellence Through Quality, we’re actually bringing one major institutional project to a close—the HOLD THY BANNER HIGH fundraising campaign—even as we are well in the thick of the Next Big Thing: MSU’s reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The closing gala for HTBH will take place during Homecoming 2012, and will have the University Community celebrating the raising of $70 million in donor funding…nearly half of that amount going to support student scholarships. (We’ve doubled the number and amount of MSU scholarships because of this campaign.) Let me again extend my gratitude to the hundreds of you at all our campus sites who have been involved in this very successful effort largely coordinated by Dr. Bob Jackson and our Office of Development, along with Dr. Tim Miller, Executive Director of the MSU Foundation. And a huge THANK YOU to all our generous donors!

The SACS “reaffirmation” process proceeds well and apace under the able guidance of Dr. Jay Morgan—who serves as the University’s accreditation liaison—and the rest of the Provost’s Office staff. Many involved in this process throughout the campus have spent the past six months making modifications in our systems, processes, and procedures following a full-scale internal review to better align them with the SACS benchmarks presented to us. A good portion of the summer and fall will next be spent completing the required documentation to demonstrate how MSU is fulfilling each of the 80 accreditation standards and requirements we must meet. Hopefully our good efforts to that point will finally allow us to see a little slowdown in much of the “grunt work” leading into the Spring 2013 semester. So as our campus teams continue preparing their documents, I want reiterate my gratitude (and that of Jay!) for staying cognizant of the timelines and due dates which we had established for ourselves, as well as to thank you in general for the level of understanding and cooperation as we move (push?) this all-encompassing initiative along. We will be primed and ready for our team’s site visit that will take place sometime in the spring of 2014.

The Outreach With Partnerships Imperative has seen its focus this year center around getting the K12CONNECT program up and going—and there will be more to come in this vein. For now, however, we’re excited about a set of projects underway for a teachers’ academy supporting the Four Rivers Scholarship Program, the success of Junior Achievement getting reestablished in the high schools of far west Kentucky, and the College of Education’s upcoming College Readiness Summit taking place in June. And more plans are churning for future programs that would serve our K-12 partners in such disparate arenas as early childhood training and wildlife conservation. Watch for developments here as we settle on a comprehensive approach for this initiative as we move into the next year and get our new COE Dean, Dr. David Whaley, officially on campus.

We haven’t had as many tangible outcomes on the Innovation for Impact measure campuswide, but we are seeding some work presently (the Hutson School of Agriculture’s bio-burner energy demonstration project being the furthest along of that group, probably) and laying the groundwork for some impressive projects to come I think. Part of the issue here will be the amount of discretionary (i.e., non-budgeted) funding we can put toward these innovative plans—since we’ve had to remove some pooled funds for this purpose from the FY13 budget given the deficit discussed earlier. But we’ll see some success with things here over time.

Summer Improvement and Renovation Projects – The last category of this last column: This summer we’ll be completing roughly $5.5 million of facility and grounds improvements (most of those on the Murray campus)—all those in addition to the $28 million of new construction or major renovation already underway which will continue throughout these next three months (e.g., CFSB practice addition, completion of Elizabeth RC renovation, RBIC build-out, new Paducah regional campus). Among the larger improvement projects included in that $5.5 million budget will be work in Winslow Dining and the T-Room, replacement roofing for Pogue Library and Wells Hall, preparing new space in Oakley Applied Science to house Career Services (the last planned move as part of the original space reutilization initiative we started well over 3 years ago), replacing windows in Stewart Stadium, and completing nearly 20 smaller projects funded by departments, grants, or our donors.

Of course, in addition to all of the construction activity you’ll notice, Murray State will once again be a beehive of activity this summer due to robust summer session enrollments, the numerous summer day and residential camps we sponsor, and the Commonwealth Honors Academy and Governor’s Scholars Program which we’ll again be hosting. I’ve often used the line that a campus is an organic being—and we certainly won’t be in stasis for one moment throughout this summer!

For those of you on something less than 12-month contracts—well, you’re probably not even reading this…and I wouldn’t blame you! But for those of us who work for MSU under year-round agreements, I hope you also can grab every opportunity to enjoy the summer with family and friends…figuring out some times to rest, recharge, and recreate. Summer is my favorite season and I’m always saddened to see it come to an end—that means one less summer left in my life! So enjoy it.

I’ll be here in the office pretty much throughout the summer (no long trips are intended, and will likely grab a few days here and there as I can). If you need anything from my office as we head into a few weeks with (hopefully) just a little slower daily pace, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Have a great summer!

Randy Dunn

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