THURSDAY
June 11, 1998
NEW VP
YEARBOOK
Don Betz takes over 3
New look, new price 8
MISS OKLAHOMA
CALENDAR
UCO student wins 10
What's happening 11
BOOKSTORE
CLASSIFIEDS
Details of privatization 6
Buy, sell, jobs, etc 12
The Student Voice Since 1903
UCO allocated $42 million from State Regents
O
klahoma State Regents of Higher Education awarded $42,535,158 toward UCO's 1998-99 fiscal year last month—a 9.4 percent increase above last year. "It wasn't enough," said President Roger Webb. "We're in such a hole that it's going to take three or four years to dig our way out before we can see the benefits of the increased funding... (However) I'm satisfied and do feel relatively pleased with the fairness of the State Regents." Until prior year commitments are satisfied, the university will not have the kind of resources Webb would like to allocate to employees and the improvements needed on the campus, said Webb. "Progress is being made, but you don't turn it around overnight," said Webb. Despite the increase in dollars, the totals allocated by the Oklahoma Legislature to all state education facilities has decreased three percent in the last two fiscal years. This is reflected by the UCO budget office's six year comparison of the budget and income. "What happened is the pie is smaller this year," said Webb. "Our increase last year was larger because more money was available for allocations than this year." Last year UCO was granted a 13.2 percent increase in funding in it's allocation of $38,887,735. Figures from UCO's budget office show that
between fiscal years 1993-94 and 1994-95, UCO's funding dropped by 0.14 percent—a loss of $39,758. In those years UCO was allotted $28,655,930 and $28,616,172 respectively. Yet the years between 1994-95 and 199596 saw a 0.75 percent increase. And the percentage increase continued again in fiscal year 1996-97 when UCO saw a budget increase of 19.11 percent. However, that trend began to decline in the 1997-98 Legislative allocation, where funding percentages for UCO went from 13.24 to the current 9.4, according to the statistics. "What is relevant is how we match up to the other institutions, and we faired good there," said Webb. "I think overall that the Legislature, and particularly the Governor (Keating), treated higher education pretty well this year." • "Big Pie" Breakdown In the 1998-99 "Big Pie" of state appropriated funding of $690,583,732 among the state funded schools, UCO ranked fourth by collecting a 6.16 percent share of that pie. UCO was preceded only by the state's two comprehensive graduate schools: the University of Oklahoma which received $112,962,281 (16.36 percent) and Oklahoma State University which was allocated $107,097,524 (15.51 percent). The OU Health Sciences Center received $72,769,215 (10.54 percent). Considered a regional university, UCO got the largest share of the pie in its category, besting six other universities across the state. Among the top five regional universities, UCO was followed by Northeastern State University, with $29,752,405 or 4.31 percent of the total funding, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, with $19,684,967 or 2.85 percent, Cameron University, with $17,881,924 or 2.59 percent and East Central University, with $14,999, 422 or 2.17 percent. Oklahoma's institutions of education are broken down into four areas and one free-
standing medical college, The Oklahoma College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery. The comprehensive graduate universities, OU and OSU, offer lower-division and upperdivision undergraduate study in a number of fields leading to the bachelor's or firstprofessional degree. They also offer graduate study in selected fields leading toward a doctorate degree. The regional universities, including UCO, offer lower-division and upper-division undergraduate study in several fields, leading to the bachelor's degree. A limited number of programs lead toward the first-professional degree below the doctorate level, primarily in teacher education. Together the seven regional universities accumulated 21.43 percent of the appropriation pie. The three special purpose universities, including Langston University, offer upper and lower division programs in several fields leading toward the bachelor's degree, and lower-division programs of technical education on a limited basis. Langston University received 1.85 percent of the state allocation, with $12,786,667, but received a 31.6 percent increase over last year's appropriations—the largest increase among the state schools this coming fiscal year. The fourteen two-year colleges, offering only lower-division courses, received 15.17 percent combined.
By Jim Hulsey SUOMI&