UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 11
November 14, 1996
UD presents FY 1998 state budget request
Partnership is the key word to describe the relationship
between the University of Delaware and the state of Delaware,
President David P. Roselle told members of the governor's
executive staff at a hearing Nov. 12 in Dover.
The UD's request for $85.6 million in state support, Roselle
said, is based on enhancing existing partnerships and furthering
other such opportunities for the state and the University, "to
propel Delaware into national leadership positions as we move
toward the 21st century."
These opportunities include enhancements to libraries, the
agribusiness community and the state's infrastructure, as well as
additional scholarship support for Delawareans.
"If you look at the University's very best programs, I
believe you'll find they consistently reflect a 'partnering'
between the University and one or more of the state's economic,
cultural or governmental sectors," Roselle said.
For example, he cited the Department of Chemical
Engineering, which enjoys an international reputation. "That
level of excellence is due in no small measure to partnerships
between the University and Delaware's major chemical industries,"
he said.
Roselle also listed highly productive partnerships among the
College of Agricultural Sciences, the poultry industry and the
agribusiness community; and among Winterthur and Hagley museums
and the University's departments of art conservation and art
history and its Museum Studies Program; as well as new and
enhanced relationships joining the University with the banking
community, the state's public schools, the health-care industry
and state and local governments.
The top priority in the UD's request to the state is for
$150,000 to assist the University in meeting spiraling
inflationary costs in library materials and to sustain the level
of excellence in the University of Delaware Library that has
ranked it among the top research libraries in the nation, he
said.
While the Consumer Price Index has risen approximately 18
percent since 1990, the average price of a library periodical has
gone up by more than 50 percent during the same time. "This will
result in additional expenditures in excess of $370,000 to simply
maintain the existing collection of our subscriptions," Roselle
said, asking for assistance to address "these extraordinary
inflationary pressures."
To offset increasing costs, the University also requested
$560,600 in expanded funding for scholarships.
Roselle said the cost of delivering higher education is
increasing, frequently due to outside pressures such as the
increased cost of library materials. "A portion of these
increased costs have to be passed along to the consumer, and we
do anticipate modest increases in tuition and fees in FY 1998,"
he said.
Despite careful management of costs, Roselle said, students
and their families face real pressures in meeting college costs.
"The University would like to expand its program of
financial assistance to our students and their families and to
ensure that no student is denied an education based upon lack of
ability to pay for it," he said.
"Each year, an increasing number of students apply for
financial assistance from the University," Roselle said, noting
that the total number of Delaware resident applicants for aid in
FY 1996 was over 2,100.
Even with funds from many different aid sources, the unmet
need for Delaware resident students in FY 1996 was $1.4 million,
or an average of $650 per student, he said. Thanks to the
effective partnership between the state and the University, that
unmet need of $650 is a dramatic improvement over the average
unmet need of $1,500 in FY 1992.
Other requests outlined by Roselle include:
an increase of $155,000 for three special agricultural
lines, to address eroding federal support for agriculture and
increased operating costs so that the optimal range of
programs may be offered through the Experiment Station and
Cooperative Extension;
$75,000 for the Summer School for Teachers Program,
moving the state closer to a 50 percent support level for this
program benefiting teachers and other educational personnel
from the public school districts;
$46,700 for inflationary increases in support funds
associated with operations and special lines; and
$50,000 for the Sea Grant Program, which had its state
support reduced during the 1990 state budget difficulties; the
cut funds were never restored, and that reduction and
inflation have placed the program in a "catch up" position.
In the area of new items, Roselle said the University's top
priority is $240,000 for the second phase in the implementation
of its Molecular Biology/Biotechnology initiative. This project
partners the University with the DuPont Co., DuPont-Merck, Zeneca
and other local industries in research activities designed to
position Delaware as a national leader in plant DNA sequencing,
gene targeting, soil microbiology and other areas central to the
state's economy. Two faculty positions associated with this
initiative were funded in FY 1997, and the FY 1998 request will
enable the University to add three more faculty members in this
strategic direction.
A $200,000 request represents a significant opportunity for
a new area of partnership among the University, the state and
industry-to address the need to modernize and renew the state's
bridges and infrastructure, Roselle said. A new technology was
developed at the University in the early 1990s to apply composite
materials to infrastructure renewal. This technology represents a
long-term and economically advantageous solution to problems
caused by the deterioration of aging bridges and other
structures, he said.
"As result of cooperation and collaboration among the
University, the composites industry, DELDOT and the Delaware
River and Bay Authority, this emerging technology is being tested
in laboratories and in the field," Roselle said.
"The time has come to expand the activities of these
partnerships and to move the technology from the laboratory and
field tests to a broad-based application throughout the state and
nation."
The requested funds will assist in this transition through
the identification of demonstration projects, and success in this
effort will benefit the state by generating new business and by
renewing Delaware's infrastructure, he said.
Other requests in the area of new items involve the two,
newly reconfigured colleges: the College of Human Resources,
Education and Public Policy and the College of Health and Nursing
Sciences. Each is intended to serve more effectively the needs of
Delaware's citizens, Roselle said.
Requests for the new College of Human Resources, Education
and Public Policy total $575,000, including support for public
service and applied research projects, training and research in
education management and governance and support for the Center
for Community Development and Family Policy.
Requests for the new College of Health and Nursing Sciences
total $194,000, including funding to establish a Center for
Health Research, which would work with the state Division of
Public Health through a research consortium, and to support
interactive educational activity.
The University has invested a portion of its resources over
the past several years to provide the latest in "cutting edge"
computing technology to its faculty and students, Roselle said.
The result is a computing and learning environment that has been
recognized among the nation's best. The University is committed
to maintaining its established standard of excellence, he said,
and a request of $200,000 in recurring funds will assist in
maintaining state-of-the-art computing equipment for faculty and
students.
Other new items include requests for:
$445,000 to underwrite a new research initiative in
materials science that will partner the University with local
industry and others to position Delaware as a national leader;
$260,000 for faculty positions in the departments of
Electrical Engineering and Computer and Information Sciences
to assist in a major telecommunications/ multimedia technology
initiative of particular interest to the banking industry and
other interested economic sectors; and
$40,000 to support the interactive television network
that connects the Newark campus, the Higher Education Building
in Georgetown and the College of Marine Studies campus in
Lewes and that enhances the instructional services to students
in Sussex County.
In requests for funding of equipment, Roselle listed:
$500,000 in one-time equipment purchases in support of
the molecular biology/biotechnology initiative, a top priority
for one-time funding;
$750,000 to purchase a 1-million-pound universal
testing machine in support of the initiative to apply advanced
materials to civil infrastructure;
$146,000 to purchase interactive video equipment and
install dedicated lines to implement a classroom setup in Kent
General Hospital, allowing an expansion of outreach for
graduate education in the College of Health and Nursing
Sciences and enabling the University to serve better the
continuing education needs of health practitioners in southern
Delaware; and
$800,000 in support of equipment for the materials
science initiative.
In his remarks, Roselle also said he strongly endorses the
Department of Public Instruction's request for $210,000 to extend
licenses for electronic library resources. This request would
make the electronic resources at the University of Delaware
Library available to the state's 29 public high schools, he said.
Roselle also outlined the University's $9 million request
for capital funds in the next fiscal year.
The University's top priority is $3 million as the final
installment in an $11 million state appropriation for the
addition to and renovation of Purnell Hall, home of the College
of Business and Economics. The University has successfully
completed its commitment to raise $4 million in support of this
project, which also includes construction of a new building for
the college, named MBNA America Hall, Roselle said.
This project is under way and is expected to be completed by
the start of the 1997-98 academic year. The project will provide
much needed space for administrative and faculty offices, study
space, lecture halls and computer labs.
"Your support of this project is appreciated, as it
underscores the importance of this college, not only as an
academic unit within the University, but as a resource to the
business and industrial sectors of the state," Roselle said.
The second priority request is for $4 million, as the first
installment in a $7.5 million request for funds to renovate
Memorial Hall. Built in 1923, Memorial Hall is one of the
cornerstones of the UD's central mall, but it currently has
several structural deficiencies, including outdated mechanical,
electrical and plumbing systems, and it is inaccessible for
physically challenged persons. The requested funds will correct
these deficiencies and enhance instructional and faculty office
space.
The University's third priority is $1 million for facilities
renewal in DuPont Hall, home of the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering. Roselle stressed that these funds
would be matched at least at a dollar-for-dollar level by
University funds. Built in 1957, DuPont Hall needs window
replacement, as well as renovation of teaching and research
laboratories and must be brought into full compliance with
building codes and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
The University will provide an additional $1.6 million from other
sources to carry out this renovation.
As a fourth priority, the University requested $500,000 for
one-time equipment for the Molecular Biology/Biotechnology
Initiative, and as a fifth priority, another $500,000 to begin
planning for the renovation of Wolf Hall, the 1916 building that
serves as home of the departments of Biology and Psychology.
"The University has had a program of facilities renewal for
several years, using institutional funds and private donations,"
Roselle said. "I invite you to visit the Newark campus to see for
yourself how wisely the University plans for and conducts
facilities renewal activity. Indeed, our most recent survey of
student satisfaction indicated that our primary constituents view
the appearance of the campus as a major asset."