Everyday, we go to class, see our friends, enjoy the tweets of @kstate_pres, and do our best to get an education in the process. Often, I think students wonder what sort of decisions our leaders in Anderson Hall make on a daily basis – decisions that affect where our tuition dollars go and what the future of the school we attend will look like.
Some basics on K-State’s budget should be understood by all students – where does our money come from? As many of you have heard, the way state universities are funded in Kansas, for better or for worse, is changing. Whereas we used to receive the majority of our funding from the state government, a higher portion of it nowadays comes from student tuition dollars. It’s more important that ever that we’re aware of where our money comes from and is going. Last fiscal year, 21.9% of our overall budget came from state appropriations, 35.1% from external gifts, grants, and research contacts, 25.7% from student tuition, and the remainder from other, more minor sources. With such a large portion of the total money coming from students, we need to have a say in how those funds will be spent.
Last week, President Schulz announced the creation of a University Budget Committee, which will make large-scale recommendations to the President about new and continuing projects and programs at K-State. The committee will be composed of Provost April Mason, three University Vice Presidents, the Presidents of Faculty and Classified Senate, three Deans, the Student Body President, and several at large representatives (students included) as well. This is a great move by President Schulz and will make the process of budget allocation far more transparent – involving students directly in the allocation process.
I’ve mentioned before how unique K-State is in the makeup of our Tuition Strategies Committee (TSC), which makes a recommendation to President Schulz each year concerning how much tuition should cost the following year. The committee is comprised entirely of students; it’s not like that at other universities, where campus administrators alone make many similar decision. This new committee – the University Budget Committee – will work in parallel with the TSC on budgetary matters, largely separate from those worked on by the TSC. We as students will still have a direct route to the President on how much tuition ought to cost, and now we’ll get a stronger say in how that money is spent as well.
See you around campus!
Eli Schooley
Student Body President
elis@ksu.edu