{"id":1934,"date":"2016-01-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/blogtest\/budget-update\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:03:55","slug":"budget-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/budget-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>MTSU remained relatively flat year-over-\u00a0year in enrollment this fall (.96\u00a0percent headcount and 1.98 percent\u00a0full-time equivalent decrease).\u00a0This slight decrease equated to an\u00a0approximate $1.9 million revenue\u00a0reduction. However, the two previous\u00a0fall decreases were 4.82 percent and\u00a05.96 percent respectively, so clearly\u00a0our ramped-up enrollment efforts are\u00a0working quite well. This slight decrease\u00a0is even more impressive given that\u00a0this was the first fall for the Tennessee\u00a0Promise scholarship and mentoring\u00a0program, which provides students\u00a0a last-dollar scholarship, meaning\u00a0the scholarship will cover tuition\u00a0and fees not covered by the Pell\u00a0grant, the HOPE scholarship, or\u00a0Tennessee Student Assistance\u00a0Awards funds. My thanks again to\u00a0everyone on staff who works so\u00a0hard on enrollment efforts at our\u00a0University each and every day.<\/p>\n<p>New revenues from tuition increases\u00a0equated to approximately\u00a0$5,270,000. Our net increase in\u00a0state appropriations (outcomes\u00a0formula adjustment and new funds\u00a0for outcomes improvement) was\u00a0$1,247,300. These new funds were\u00a0allocated to the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MTSU portion of two percent pool\u00a0salary increase;<\/li>\n<li>faculty promotions;<\/li>\n<li>increased cost of software maintenance\u00a0agreements;<\/li>\n<li>utility and operations\/maintenance\u00a0cost increases;<\/li>\n<li>scholarships, tuition discounts,\u00a0employee fee waivers and dependent\u00a0discounts, and graduate assistant\u00a0fee waivers;<\/li>\n<li>funding for college deans\u2019 requests\u00a0for continuing improvements on the\u00a0MTSU Quest for Student Success\u00a0initiatives; and<\/li>\n<li>student tutoring\/supplemental instruction\u00a0and dual enrollment instruction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looking toward fiscal year 2016\u201317,\u00a0MTSU\u2019s share of the Tennessee Higher\u00a0Education Commission\u2019s outcomes\u00a0formula adjustment will be a decrease\u00a0of $1,021,100. However, THEC voted\u00a0at its November 2015 meeting to\u00a0propose new state funding totaling\u00a0$40.9 million for the higher education\u00a0formula institutions. MTSU\u2019s share\u00a0of the proposed new funding will be\u00a0$3,908,400. Thus, MTSU\u2019s state funding\u00a0could actually increase by $2,887,300.<\/p>\n<p>The commission also voted to\u00a0recommend $12.54 million in capital\u00a0maintenance funds for MTSU projects,\u00a0which include Peck Hall HVAC,\u00a0stairwell, and flooring restoration;\u00a0Saunders Fine Arts HVAC updates;\u00a0exterior building repairs to several\u00a0buildings; domestic water-sewer systems\u00a0updates; building automation system\u00a0control panel replacements for several\u00a0buildings; electrical updates; and energy\u00a0recovery boiler repair. No MTSU capital\u00a0project was proposed for new capital\u00a0outlay funding for 2016\u201317.<\/p>\n<p>THEC\u2019s recommendations have been\u00a0submitted to the Department of Finance\u00a0and Administration for consideration\u00a0in the proposed state budget that Gov.\u00a0Bill Haslam will be submitting to the\u00a0state legislature in the coming weeks.\u00a0At that point, we will have more\u00a0information regarding our likely\u00a02016\u201317 state appropriation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Salary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In September, 2015, the Tennessee Board of Regents took formal action\u00a0to approve a two percent Cost of\u00a0Living Adjustment (COLA) across-the-board (ATB) salary increase for\u00a0MTSU employees. The salary increase\u00a0was distributed to all unrestricted and\u00a0restricted regular full-time\u00a0and part-time benefit eligible\u00a0employees and\u00a0participants in the post-retirement\u00a0service program\u00a0on the payroll as of June\u00a030, 2015. Each eligible\u00a0employee received an\u00a0increase equal to two\u00a0percent of their June 30,\u00a02015 salary or $750,\u00a0whichever was greater.<\/p>\n<p>The minimum payment\u00a0was prorated for part-time\u00a0employees. Increases for\u00a0grant employees were part\u00a0of the salary adjustments,\u00a0and their increases were\u00a0charged to the appropriate\u00a0grant (increases for auxiliary employees\u00a0were funded from auxiliary revenues).\u00a0All increases were effective in the\u00a0October 2015 pay period but included\u00a0retroactive pay to July 1, 2015.\u00a0Unfortunately, due to limited funds\u00a0available, those increases did not apply\u00a0to adjunct faculty, temporary employees,\u00a0graduate assistants, or student workers.\u00a0It is my sincere hope that as resources\u00a0become available, we will be in a\u00a0position to address these very important\u00a0groups of employees.<\/p>\n<p>Please know how much I value each\u00a0of you and appreciate your good work.\u00a0I was grateful that we were able again\u00a0to give some salary increases to our\u00a0employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTSU remained relatively flat year-over-\u00a0year in enrollment this fall (.96\u00a0percent headcount and 1.98 percent\u00a0full-time equivalent decrease).\u00a0This slight decrease equated to an\u00a0approximate $1.9 million revenue\u00a0reduction. However, the two previous\u00a0fall decreases were 4.82 percent and\u00a05.96 percent respectively, so clearly\u00a0our ramped-up enrollment efforts are\u00a0working quite well. This slight decrease\u00a0is even more impressive given that\u00a0this was the first fall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3195,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/3195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}