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State comes calling
for reversion money
For months – at the request of the state – the university has been setting aside nearly 2 percent of its budget for possible reversion. Late last week, the state came calling for that money, Provost Jim Oblinger told the Faculty Senate on Tuesday.
“Last Thursday we received a call from the state Office of Management and Budget indicating that the monthly holdback has turned into a ‘turn-in’ immediately to cover Hurricane Isabel,” Oblinger said. “As a result, some $7.1 million has been surrendered to the state. That’s on top of the 3.1 percent continuing reversion of approximately $11 million.”
Oblinger also informed the group that applications to the university were up 11 percent over this time last year, and admissions are already 40 percent ahead of last year’s pace.
Given those bits of information, Senator Robert Bruck asked if anyone in state government understood that increasing admissions and a decreasing budget was a “train wreck waiting to happen.”
Oblinger,
after pointing out the obvious strains facing state government from all
sides, responded by discussing some of the ways NC State and the university
system are working to avoid the collision. Among them:
• Increasing enrollment money, which he said was the No. 1 priority
of the Office of the President;
• Overhauling the matrix used to calculate funding for enrollment,
which he said is outdated;
• Encouraging citizens to speak up for higher education, since voters
are ultimately the ones who can most influence state legislators.
He added that NC State is also working hard to cover some of the gaps through fund-raising, then introduced Terry Wood to discuss some of the successes the university has enjoyed in that area.
Wood, vice chancellor for university advancement, told the Faculty Senate that the university has been in the quiet phase of its next capital campaign since July 2001, and is a year ahead of pace to meet a goal of raising $375 million by the time the $750 million campaign is formally kicked off in the fall of 2004.
“Our development organization, those development officers that are active in your colleges, and Lee (Fowler) and the athletics department through the Wolfpack Club are really getting the job done,” Wood said.
“However, I will tell you that we are not at the point where giving has gotten out of hand,” he joked, “so we’re going to keep going.”
Wood also pointed out some of the activities taking place with Achieve!, the university’s branding and marketing campaign, as well as plans for new visitors and alumni centers that will serve as portals to the university.
Posted November 21, 2003
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