On April 2, President Lesley Hallick presented the projected budget for the upcoming school year and how money from this past year has been distributed to faculty, staff and students.
Much of the money this past year has been used to improve infrastructure on campus, the most noticeable being Cascade Hall, but also improvements have been made to numerous classrooms and buildings such as Brown Hall, Carnegie Hall and the third floor of Walter Hall.
Other investments include funding positions for the new JV athletic programs, creating the new Criminal Justice and Law and Society major and starting the new the doctorate program in Vision Science.
“These strides reflect Pacific’s commitment to retaining our identity as a place committed to personal, nurturing learning environments while also growing to meet the needs of future learners,” Hallick said.
There are always two goals when trying to balance the budget: keep tuition costs down and increase the pay roll.The estimated budget for next year is $415 million. Tuition will increase next year by three point five percent, the lowest increase since 2001. For the second goal, the Compensation Comparability Project has been created, which resulted from the 2009-2010 listening tour.
Currently a big portion of the faculty here at Pacific are not being paid the national average and so the mission of this project is to bring all salaries to 100 percent of the national median over a span of five to seven years. This year was an overall increase in the pay roll by four point nine percent.
In order to achieve the proposed budget for next year, Pacific University needs to meet a high undergraduate net revenue. Hallick sounded confident, commenting that “Pacesetters attendance was higher than ever, but May 1st will be the deciding factor.”
After Hallick’s presentation, the forum was open to questions or comments.
One faculty member made a comment regarding the Board of Trustees decision to pay Hallick half a million dollars in salary.
“Having such a high salary creates animosity amongst faculty and staff,” he said.
The president acknowledged his point and replied that she had been strictly instructed to not defend her salary.
The powerpoint Hallick presented will be available on the school website this week.
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