7/29/2019 The Murray State News 1A 3A, Oct. 26
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Chris Wilcox || News [email protected] Murray
State administration prepares
an annual operating budget, setting the
guidelines for the expenditures and revenuesof the University.
The state government man-dates businesses or institutions
receivingpublic funding provide documentation re-garding
budgets.
Jeremiah Johnson, student regent and Stu-dent Government
Association president, saidthe operating budget shows the
constituentsof Murray State where all of the money isgoing and
approximately how much the Uni-versity gets from tuition, state
appropriationsand elsewhere.
The University operating budget is one ofthe most important
documents in the Uni-versity system, he said. It is very
importantfor students to know where their money goesand it is
increasingly important for the stu-dents to know that once the
budget is passedat the Board of Regents meeting it is publicrecord,
so they should never be intimidatedor afraid to ask about the
budget.
Tom Denton, vice president of Finance andAdministrative
Services, said the operating
budget is established on a fiscal year basis tocoincide with the
states operating year.
Murray State is considered a componentunit of the entire state
budget process and isincluded in both the state biennial budget
and the state annual (actual) operating rev-enue and expenditure
report, he said.
The Board of Regents approved the 2012-13budget at its June
meeting.
The greatest variable is whether the de-partments expend their
budget expenditures,whether there are new revenue not budgeted,and
whether departments expend their prioryears carryover funds. Denton
said.
According to the 2012-13 operating budget,approximately $124
million has been bud-geted for the education and general portionof
the revenue budget. The grand total rev-enue budget, which includes
the educationand general section and auxiliaries, is ap-proximately
$152.7 million.
Students contribute $66.9 million to theeducation and general
subtotal revenuebudget, in the form of tuition and fees.
Denton said the format of Murray Statesbudget includes the
nationally standardized
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Chris Wilcox || News [email protected]
As the University enters the10th week of the fall semester,
thebudget planning and review teamsestablished by President
RandyDunn have begun prioritizing andevaluating academic and
nonaca-demic programs.
The teams were established toreduce or re-appropriate funds
tomake up for a state-made$2,289,600 deficit to the Univer-sity
budget.
Josh Jacobs, chief of staff, saidthere has been no set number
es-tablished by the presidents officeor the Board of Regents, for
howmuch each team should cut, buthe said, the board indicated
theadministration should not rely onreserves for the coming year,
asthey did for this years budget.
The board approved the use of
approximately $1.9 million of re-serves for 2012-13, he
said.
The Board of Regents annuallyreviews recommendations fromDunn,
including those in regardsto the University budget.
This year, the president willmake a recommendation to theboard
based on the activity of theteams and the work of the
admin-istration, Jacobs said.
While no set number exists, hesaid the board and the
presidentexpect the review teams to taketheir charge seriously,
which willresult in savings and revenue forthe University.
Jacobs sa id the presidents of-fice has provided no strict
metricor guideline the teams are to use.
We did provide examples fromother institutions that the
teamscould reference, he said. But wedid not dictate a standard
docu-ment.
He said the metrics created bythe teams need to loosely
addressfive guiding criteria.
1. Essentiality History, size,scope, relationship to mission
andoverall essentiality to the institu-tion; 2. Demand External and
in-ternal demand, includingenrollments and numbers served;3.
Quality For program inputs,outputs and process quality; 4.Cost
Effectiveness Revenues andother resources generated againstall
costs associated with the pro-gram, including standard
produc-tivity measures; and 5.Opportunity Impact, justifica-tion
and expansion prospects, Ja-cobs said.
On Oct. 16, a meeting was heldin which the budget planning
andreview team chairs met with Pres-ident Dunn to touch base and
re-port preliminary suggestions.
We wanted to reiterate the
charge, Jacobs said. (To) allowthe chairs to ask any questions,
aswell as have the opportunity todiscuss any items as a group.
Jacobs said the questions askedat the meeting included how
todeal with the overall process mov-ing forward. He said the
membersof the teams also asked about theprocess they should employ
toclarify any jurisdictional ques-tions for programs that may
pro-vide a service to the communityor campus, but are also
academicin nature.
Dunn said each academic andnonacademic team determines itsown
meeting time and frequency.
While no set dates have beenestablished on the progress of
theteams, the presidents office hasset a general timeline, which
in-cludes an interim report to the
Edward Marlowe || Staff writer
[email protected]
While businesses continue to scramble for thelimited supply of
package liquor store and tavern li-censes available, students and
faculty will no longerhave to wait for the first beer sales to
arrive.
Monday afternoon saw the first legal alcoholtransactions in
Murray take place inside Five StarMarathon, located at Five
Points.
Kendra Clere, sergeant for the Murray Police De-partment and
City Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC)Administrator for Murray, said
while beer would ar-rive quicker than liquor stores and taverns,
citizenscould still be waiting for all of the license applica-tions
to be approved at the state and city levels.
Just days before becoming a legal distributor of al-cohol, Five
Star Marathon made a misstep in theprocess, selling before
finalizing both licenses.
Last Friday afternoon, after having been stockedby Miller and
Budweiser Distributing Co., Five StarMarathon began erroneously
selling alcohol to cus-tomers before obtaining its city
licensing.
Clere said the entire situation was just a misun-derstanding and
has already been handled withincity jurisdiction.
Five Star thought that because they already hadtheir state
license they could start selling, but theydidnt have their city
license, she said. Withouthaving their city license and having it
posted like itwas supposed to be, they technically couldnt
sellbecause they were in violation with city policies.
As of Tuesday morning, only Rite Aid, Hucks,Max Fuel BP and Five
Star Marathon had been ap-proved not only at the state level, but
also on the citylevel. Each business began selling by the early
after-noon.
More businesses, Clere said, would follow in the
TEAMS ALCOHOL
VPs, Regent discussdistribution of funds
Beamer Barron/The News
TheNews.org Vol. 88, No. 11October 26, 2012
The Murray State News
Graphic by Evan Watson/The News
Review teams begin finance evaluations
-Jeremiah Johnson, Student Regent
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structure, which categorizesby departments, butthe University
budget also lists by area of re-sponsibility: Presidential
Accounts, AcademicAffairs, Student Affairs, Institutional
Advance-mentand Financeand Administrative Personnel.
A vice president might have something con-tained within their
area of responsibility whichmight not follow the national chart
structure,which is why there are two ways the budget is
formatted, he said.Each of the nine academic college/school
budgets are reportedin a similar fashion. For ex-ample, the
Hutson School of Agriculture has anareaof responsibility budget of
approximately$6.7 mil lion. This number reflects the totalbudget
for the college, combining public serv-ices such as the farms and
the Breathitt Vet-erinary Diagnostic Center in Hopkinsville, Ky.
and academic services, including faculty andstaff salaries.
The instructional budget for the HutsonSchool of Agriculture is
almost $2.2 million adifference of almost $4.6 mil lion which
ismade up primarily of faculty and staff salaries.
The salary differences between faculty, staffand administrators
can vary greatly for a num-ber of reasons, including the position
itself, ed-ucation level, essentiality and for faculty, the
college in which they teach.Johnson said one of the most
troubling items
on the budget is salary. He said as a student itdid not make
sense to him that some within theUniversity, who have the same
education level,would have such a large variance in pay.
Iguess whenyoufactor inthe sizeof the col-lege and the number of
students within it thesalary differencecan begin to makemore
sense,he said. It s not the same thing across otherareas of the
University, coaches for instance, Idon t see it as fa ir that
coaches make more
money than anyone in the faculty or staff.Bonnie Higginson, vice
president of Aca-
demic Affairs, said she could only speak aboutthe academic
nature of Murray State, but saidthe salaries among the faculty can
vary for anumber of reasons.
She said the biggest determinant is what theprofessor would be
worth in the job market.
She said faculty in the Arthur J. BauernfeindCollege of Business
tend to have higher salariesbecause of what they are worth outside
of theUniversity.
Some of the professors in business couldmake more outside of the
University, she said.
Don Robertson, vice president of Student Af-fairs, agreed with
Higginsonand saidthe marketwas the reason some faculty were paid
more.
Certain areas of employment pay more thanothers, he said.
Scientists and doctors makemore than teachers. In academia, certain
disci-plines pay more than others. Its a reflection ofwhat field
you are in. Its no different than thereal world. A lot has to do
with market and thesupply and demand, based on where theyvetaught,
services they have done and notoriety.
He said time served at the University couldalso have an impact
on the variation in salaries.
If you look at the College of Humanities andFine Arts, probably
every student on campus isgoing to take classes in that college
because ofgen. ed classes, Robertson said. Its going tohavea larger
faculty and more classes, so it willhave a higher operating budget
compared to
agriculture, which is going to be a more narrowgroup of
individuals taking those classes.
He said there are many variables and it wasimpossible to say one
area or position on cam-pus wasmore important than another.
Part of that is in the choice you make whenyou decide what to
major in, he said.
While faculty tend to have a higher salarythanstaffat Murray
State,Denton said the aver-age staff salary, excluding hourly-paid
workers,wasdependent upon three areas:market fortheposition, cost
of livingand standard benchmarksalaries, which are gathered on a
national level.
The budget across areas of responsibility,
within the general and education fund portion,also varies
greatly; Academic Affairs has abudget of approximately $71.3
million,while Stu-dent Affairs has a budget of approximately
$7.3million.
Robertson said it was not unusual for Aca-demic Affairsto have a
much largerbudget thanStudent Affairs.
The scope of Academic Affairs is muchlargerthan Student Affairs,
he said. Its budgetincludeseach academiccollege, all of the
facultysalaries and the services they provide.
Robertson said the budget forStudent Affairswas spread thin and
there was not a lot of per-sonnelin some areas,but said theoffice
still hasthe dollars necessary to provide basic services.
In the online edition of this feature, located atthenews.org, a
link to the Universitys 2012-13 op-erating budget is posted.
3AThe News
Board of Regents at its Dec. 14 meeting.Tim Todd, dean of the
Arthur J.
Bauernfeind College of Business andchair of the colleges budget
planningand review team, said the teams havebeen more successful
than hed origi-nally imagined.
Were basically going through threesteps, he said. Were
prioritizing,looking to see if low performing pro-grams need to be
changed, were goingthrough the budget to minimize thered ink,
looking to see if we can innov-
atively change programs without dam-aging them and were looking
to see ifwe can maximize the black ink, look-ing to provide more
services whichwill show additional streams of rev-enue.
Todd said the chairs within theschool of business have been
makingtheir own recommendations, whichthe team is looking at before
eventuallymaking proposals to the provost andpresident.
Were literally taking the budgetand going line-by-line, he said.
Werescrubbing the budget to see areas thatmight be cut. Were hoping
we havestrong recommendations to take thepresident in a month.
Tom Denton, vice president of Fi-nance and Administrative
Services,said there were several things theteams could look at in
regard to less-ening expenditures.
He said one option might be lookingat vacant salaried positions
throughoutthe University.
Out of the salaried positions in thebudget, about 5 percent of
them mightbe vacancies, he said But the vacan-cies on the academic
side tend to stayin the budget longer.
He said in previous years the aca-demic side of the University
has elim-inated vacant positions to provide asource of funds, but
only the positionsthat were empty for two or more years.
He said the nonacademic salariedpositions generally tended to
fillquicker.
Its a never-ending process, Den-ton said. Its difficult to
maintain astatic level of personnel. We have somevacancies year
round and those willprobably be looked at.
Bonnie Higginson, vice president ofAcademic Affairs, said the
budget wascreated earlier in the year and does notaccount for the
positions that havesince been filled.
I would hope we dont sweep va-cant lines, she said. Academic
Affairsdid that before, and we lost over$700,000. I hope that
doesnt happenagain, definitely not to that extreme.
coming days, as the city has begunthe process of approving
licensesand distributing them to the appro-priate businesses.
The state has to send its ownABC Administrators to check
thesites where businesses have alreadyapplied, Clere said. Its a
huge relaythat can take anywhere from 30-45days before the license
is applied forand either approved or denied.
Clere said administrators have notyet arrived to check on all of
the con-venience stores and gas stations inthe area, as each
passing day pushessome release dates later into theyear.
Because of the lengthy process andintricate litigation, Clere
said itwould probably be the first of theyear before any packaged
liquorstores or full taverns were created.
Most of the applicants are playinga wait and see game, she said.
Theycant start building yet until theyknow theyve been
approved.
With eight retail package licenses(liquor stores) and seven
tavern li-censes (full bars) up for grabs in thecity, Clere
confirmed more parties
have applied for licenses than areavailable, and she anticipated
moreapplications to arrive over time.
Beer licenses, however, can be pro-vided to all stores with at
least $5,000in grocery retail who apply and areaccepted, proving to
be less compet-itive than retail and tavern licenses.
Though she could not confirm thenames of businesses and
proprietorswho have voiced their intent toapply, Clere did say 15
applicationsare currently on the table for retailpackage stores,
seven more than isallowed in Murray.
However, six applications havebeen filed for the tavern
license,leaving at least one more available inthe event no
applications be rejected.
With alcohol sales creeping up onthe area, Clere shared some
advicefor students who are looking forwardto the changing scene and
availabil-ity of alcohol in Murray.
Even though it is more accessibledoesnt mean it wont be more
en-forced, she said. Just because wewont be waiting outside of
every es-tablishment doesnt mean we arentwatching.
ALCOHOLFrom Page 1
ATTENTIONSENIORS!
DO YOU PLAN TO
GRADUATE IN MAY 2013?
IF SO YOU NEED TO
APPLY FOR
GRADUATION TODAY!
May 2013 degree applications
are due by December 1, 2012.Log on to myGate
Select the Academics tabSelect the Apply to Graduate Link in
the
Student Links Channel
Questions? Email:[email protected]
TEAMSFrom Page 1
Edward Marlowe/The News
The fir
st sale of package
d alcohol o
ccurr
ed Mond
ay at 2:10 p.m. at the Five Star Marathonconveni
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, located at Fiv
e Point
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The pi
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ar
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strate
s the five Universit
y areas of re
-
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eneral por
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opera
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dget. *I.A. represen
ts Ins
titu
tional Advancemen
t,
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s.
Finance &
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vi
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31.9 M
Stud
entA
ffair
s
7.3M
President
8.8
M
*I.A.4.8M
Academic Affairs
71.4 M
From Page 1
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NewsOctober 26, 2012
