FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2005

Contact: Eric Gerber
713.743.8189 (office)
281.627.2065 (cell)

HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2005 – A $969 million budget for fiscal year 2006 has been approved by the University of Houston System Board of Regents.

The action was taken at a Thursday meeting that also saw the election of Leroy Hermes as the board’s new chair. (A separate release has been distributed on the board’s new slate of officers.)

This budget, which will cover operations and capital expenditures at the University of Houston, the University of Houston-Clear Lake, the University of Houston-Downtown, the University of Houston-Victoria and the UH System Administration (UHSA), represents a 4.2 percent increase from the previous year’s total of $930 million. The UH System is projecting continued enrollment growth, with more than 57,000 students expected for Fall 2005 (FY06) at its four universities and two teaching centers.

The new budget increases student scholarship funds, expands the number of full-time faculty members by 4 percent and finances a number of construction projects within the system.

University by university, the budget (and projected enrollment) breaks down this way:
• UH -- $716 million (34,868 students)
• UH-Clear Lake -- $80 million (7,901 students)
• UH-Downtown -- $112 million (11,750 students)
• UH-Victoria -- $42 million (2,508 students)
• UH System Administration -- $19 million

UH-Victoria enjoyed the greatest budget rise, with a 58 percent increase over FY05. This is due, in large part, to $12 million scheduled for three new construction projects, including a second academic building at the UHS-Sugar Land Teaching Center. UH-Downtown, which has been experiencing the greatest enrollment growth within the system recently, received a 26 percent increase in its overall budget, including $15 million for the proposed Shea Street Building.

The budget also funded these salary increases: UH and UHSA faculty and staff 4 percent; UH-Clear Lake faculty and staff 3.5 percent; UH-Downtown faculty 3 percent and staff 5.5 percent; UH-Victoria faculty and staff 5.5 percent.

For more information about the UH System, visit http://www.uhsa.uh.edu/ .

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SYSTEM

The University of Houston System is the state’s only metropolitan higher education system, encompassing four universities and two multi-institution teaching centers. The universities are the University of Houston, a nationally recognized doctoral degree-granting, comprehensive research university; the University of Houston-Downtown, a four-year undergraduate university beginning limited expansion into graduate programs; and the University of Houston-Clear Lake and the University of Houston-Victoria, both upper division and master’s-level institutions. The centers are the UH System at Sugar Land in Fort Bend and the UH System at Cinco Ranch. In addition, the UH System includes KUHF-FM, Houston’s National Public Radio and classical radio station, and KUHT-TV, the nation’s first educational television station.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.