During the first Faculty Senate meeting of the spring semester, University of Houston Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Foss announced that the University of Houston is facing a budget shortfall of approximately $17 million for fiscal year 2007, which begins in September.

Three primary factors contributing to this deficit, he said, are rising energy costs, additional costs for faculty and staff benefits, and lower than expected enrollment numbers.

“The energy cost increase is in the 30 – 40 percent range, which is in the neighborhood of an additional $6 million that the university will have to pay,” he said. “This is money that the university does not have.”

Despite strong recruiting efforts, Foss said that UH still fell short of its enrollment goals. As of fall 2005, UH had 35,344 enrolled students, which was only a slight increase of the previous year’s total number of students – 35,180.

Foss added that the university is also challenged by roughly $2 - $3 million in employee benefits.

A combination of increased tuition and fees and budget cuts could help curtail the shortfall, he said.

In terms of budget cuts, the university could trim between $5 - $6 million from its FY2007 budget. Roughly half of this amount would be generated by deferring facilities projects and information technology upgrades. Approximately $2 million would come from cutting the budgets of UH’s divisions and an estimated $1.1 million would come from the colleges’ budgets.

Foss was firm, however, that no decisions have been finalized and that dollar amounts discussed have not been confirmed. He added that budget hearings will begin soon with the goal of making recommendations to the UH System Board of Regents later this spring.

Mike Emery
memery@central.uh.edu