UT Tyler Planning Improvements
Tyler Morning Telegraph / Betty Waters, Staff Writer / July 1, 2007

The Legislature's appropriation for The University of Texas at Tyler for the next biennium allocates $1.5 million for overall growth and for three new academic programs - civil engineering and doctoral degrees in nursing and human resources development.

That allotment came as a "special item for institutional enhancement" included in a $71 million legislative funding package for UT Tyler over the next two years. It also covers general operations, payments on interest and principle for most campus construction projects either under way or on the drawing board, insurance and other expenses.

Depending on how strong the need, the Legislature grants special item funding to state agencies for expenses not covered in formulas for state budgeting.

UT Tyler will use its special item funds - $750,000 for each year of the biennium - to add faculty and staff to accommodate its growing overall enrollment, add a civil engineering program, develop an innovative nursing doctoral program, start a doctoral program in human resources development and provide 2 percent employee raises probably in January, said President Rodney Mabry.

The special item funding "mitigates a squeeze" the university faced because of increasing costs for climbing enrollment and a substantial reduction of about 40 percent by the state higher education coordinating board in the funding formula for undergraduate nursing, Mabry said.

UT Tyler had the second highest increase in semester credit hours among state universities between the 2006 and 2007 legislative sessions - 13.1 percent - and has the second largest nursing school in the state. Mabry indicated he does not believe anyone realized how dramatically the change in the funding formula for nursing would affect UT Tyler.

Other universities experiencing enrollment jumps received large increases in their instruction and operating formula funding. But in UT Tyler's case, funding for enrollment growth was counteracted by the large drop in funding for nursing and the net result was no increase in funding for basic operations and growth, Mabry said.

To explain the problem that posed for the next biennium, Mabry recalled UT Tyler had an additional 800 students in the last couple of years. If each student took five courses, that's 4,000 more seats needed in classes. If 40 were assigned to each class, that means 100 additional sections conducted, and if a professor teaches four classes, that's 25 new faculty members needed, Mabry estimated.

"You can't just simply fit (more students) into existing classes; you can do some of that, but you've got to open additional sections to take care of that kind of increase," he said. "If we grow 5 or 10 percent this fall as has been happening and another 10 percent the next fall, we are not funded (for the growth without the special item funding). We needed funds for growth and to advance new programs we believe are essential to the university like civil engineering and construction management."

NEW PROGRAMS
Starting a civil engineering program, Mabry said, is important in the development of UT Tyler's College of Engineering, which was created in about 1997 with programs in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and a general master's program.

"Civil engineering is not an extra degree, it's an anchor of any engineering program. Typically civil engineering has an enrollment that is as large as the other (programs) combined at most other universities," Mabry said.

New doctoral programs in nursing and human resources development at UT Tyler "are important for the state and also important for the university," plus the nursing program is a pilot project for the nation, Mabry said.

The Ph.D. nursing degree will be online, although students will continue to rotate through hospitals and outpatient clinics for practical training and faculty will work on research projects. The undergraduate nursing degree is already offered online.

"The nursing doctoral program is designed to produce nursing faculty for the state so that other colleges and universities can grow nursing colleges in the future," Mabry said.

Statistics show a shortage of nursing graduates who can be faculty in nursing colleges.

Mabry added, "We have a very progressive and innovative nursing college here. It is phenomenal in many ways, not only in growth but quality. It is one of the best nursing programs in the state if you measure that by pass rates on the state licensing exam."

Approximately 97 percent passed the last examination.

The new doctoral degree in human resources development will be offered through the college of business and technology, unlike most HRD degrees set up in colleges of education.

"This is a high demand field and our program will be more business oriented and more rigorous than many other programs around the country," Mabry said.

"In terms of subject matter, it will combine adult education ... adult learning theory from the college of education ... with technology courses and understanding of technology in a marriage of technology and learning. Also on the management side, (it will create) an understanding of what needs to be done in the workplace typically as it relates to training and re-training work forces to move into other areas."

The program will turn out professionals who can lead technical colleges, junior colleges and higher education, as well as graduates who can also become faculty members in technology programs at the undergraduate and master's levels, Mabry said.

ASSISTANCE
Mabry expressed gratefulness to legislators who worked to obtain the $1.5 million special item funding.

"Rep. Leo Berman, as chairman of his own committee and a member of the speaker's team, was a true warrior in the House for us," Mabry said. "Sen. Kevin Eltife used his influence on the Senate Finance Committee and went to bat for us behind the scenes. Sen. Robert Nichols gathered major players from across the Legislature near the end of the session and worked hard for us, too."

Mabry added, "We are thankful that the governor ratified UT Tyler's special item passed by the Legislature. We believe he understood our need for additional funding to meet expenses for high growth and also to develop important new academic programs."

A $10 per credit hour increase in tuition approved for UT Tyler by the UT system board of regents will not produce nearly enough income for those expenses, according to Mabry. Revenue from an increase in the student technology fee from $25 to $100 per semester has to be spent on technology and is not available to pay for raises and new programs.

Although the overall $71 million allotment to the university appears to be an increase from the approximately $62 million allotment for the last biennium, the new allocation includes about $8 million restricted for payments on interest and principle for campus facilities.

It looks like the university is flush with funding but, in reality, subtracting the $8 million from the new allocation shows UT Tyler received about the same funding for general operations as it did for the last biennium, Mabry pointed out.

He looks at the $1.5 million special item funding as an escape value in a sense.

"Even with the $1.5 million, we will not be able to do all we need to do, but we will be able to do most of what we need to do with funding they've given us and the extra from students and some we have saved in a rainy day fund," Mabry said.

CONSTRUCTION
The $8 million in state funding earmarked for debt service covers payments on 100 percent of interest and principle on several construction projects financed with proceeds from sale of tuition revenue bonds - $48 million worth on the main Tyler campus and $7 million to build a new building for the Palestine extension, anticipated to open in fall 2009.

Projects under way on the Tyler campus include finishing the second engineering building, renovation of University Center to convert upstairs offices and classrooms into facilities for students, renovation of a portion of the Hudnall Pirtle Roosth building for education and psychology programs and an art studio expansion. However, a three-story addition to University Center to provide a modernized dining hall is being financed with income from a $100 per semester fee students voted to assess themselves.