Last Friday, ESU President Michael Lane made a presentation to ESU faculty and staff on an efficiency report recently released by the Kansas Legislative Division of the Post Audit.
It sounds complicated and recondite. And, in many ways, it will be for the six Regent universities targeted by the report in the months ahead. But the goal of the audit is simple: more efficiency in higher education. In other words, the Kansas Board of Regents is asking for significant reduction in fiscal waste in higher education across the state.
The report, covering the five school years from 2003 to 2007 was purposed to find precisely how tax dollars are being spent in each of the state’s universities.
ESU’s report card came back with high scores, which, in this case, wasn’t good:
• the highest increase in instructional-related expenses of all the state universities
• the highest expenditure per full-time equivalency student, and
• the highest staffing levels among the regional state institutions
Fortunately, President Lane has already been stepping up efforts to cut costs at ESU. According to the president, the university has started offering more courses online, is canceling or combining courses with low enrollment and working to consolidate administrative positions, all efforts that the post audit committee recommended to the institutions to reduce costs.
ESU, the regional institution with a high graduate student population compared to other schools of the same size, is also currently in the process of revising a school-wide policy on faculty work load and faculty reassigned time, an area where the report identified the biggest inefficiency.
The audit is intended to make cents. In a time of severe budget reductions and decrease in state funding, our state universities need to be working hard to trim the fat.
But it should also make sense. When it comes to higher education, we’d like to think our universities provide an environment with a considerable amount of options and opportunities for students to pursue and one that fosters an appetite for learning. Cutting programs, classes and faculty could put much of that at risk.
Keeping the standard of excellence high but the cost of it low will not be an easy task. It’s likely to be tedious and maybe even a little painful, but in a time when everyone is forced to find more efficient ways to do business, even our universities are not exempt.
Emporia State has lots of work to do. But, in the end, the cents have to make sense.
Ashley Knecht Walker
Editor
Comments
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Posted by reddog (anonymous) on October 22, 2009 at 5:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
State Unencumbered Cash. 1.955 billion dollars spread across 1,658 funds. Most legislators weren't told this money existed. Source-The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.
Posted by reddog (anonymous) on October 22, 2009 at 5:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wichita State has 42 million dollars of unencumbered cash. What is the story on ESU?
Posted by reddog (anonymous) on October 22, 2009 at 11:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
2 to 3.1 billion dollars of state funds should have been returned to Kansas taxpayers over the last 6 years according to David Trabert, President of the Flint Hills Center for public policy.
Posted by reddog (anonymous) on October 23, 2009 at 12:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has been such a valuable resource to me in the legislative process. They have highly qualified individuals who have a wonderful ability of bringing truth to the surface on many issues. They are working on such crucial issues as Health Policy, Education, and Fiscal Issues in Kansas and I treasure the information that they provide."-Mrs. Peggy Mast, Kansas House of Representative, 76th District.
Posted by reddog (anonymous) on October 23, 2009 at 12:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
UNENCUMBERED FUNDS are funds that are not part of any future obligation.
Posted by reddog (anonymous) on October 29, 2009 at 2:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has changed its name to the Kansas Policy Institute.
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