Sept 13 - 2010 - Transparency in the Budget and those Opportunity Costs

We are still waiting for transparency, for the detailed listing of what monies get spent on what line items in a detailed accounting (beyond the Budget Notebook, one finds in Zuhl), such as athletic scholarship costs, athletic safety, tutoring expenditures, stadium and coaches building costs, etc.  We saw the Sept 2nd presentation by the Administration to Faculty Senate. We have been promised this transparency by HR and by Athletics, but it has not materialized. There is a glimmer of reply, but still no hard data, just summary totals.
We at NMSU-AAUP therefore put some interim calculations together, about that old reliable economic practice, OPPORTUNITY COSTS.
There are some opportunity costs with using I&G funds to pay the debt and operation expenses of the Athletics Department. There are other pots of money that NMSU administration could dip into besides I&G or F&A. This was made clear in Howard Bunsis presentation. April 9th 2010 the Howard Bunsis Slides were released by NMSU-AAUP to the public. See Press Release | See More info on Surveys & Results If you could not attend, review the slides (or print out a high quality PDF of the slides), & watch the YouTube videos, or see http://nmsuaaup.org for all the slides and survey results.
A way to get a panoramic view of the I&G is to look at faculty salaries as such a very small percent of the total grand budget.  This is an aerial view of the new 2010-2011 budget plan.


Here is the bottom line: If the Administration got $4.1 Million for athletics elsewhere in the$696M total expenditures for all campuses for FY 2010-11, then I&G money could pay for many other things: keeping faculty lines open, even a raise for staff and faculty. Certainly no one would dare ask for a raise at a time of such crisis. But, keeping Athletics Budget outside the 2-4-10% cut formula, but splicing in I&G/F&A money has all these OPPORTUNITY COSTS.

HERE ARE THE CALCULATIONS:

The Net Effect of Residually Funding Faculty Salaries at NMSU

Data Source: AAUP Annual Salary Survey.  The NMSU Administration  supplies data for all branches and the main campus for Full Time Faculty

with NMSU system annual budget figures from the Provost's website

2009-2010 Salaries by Rank in Thousands

 

 

Campus Tots

Campus

Prof

Assoc

Assist

Instructor

All Ranks

In Thousands

Alamagordo

$53.70

$47.20

$46.20

$40.90

$46.80

$2,574.00

Carlsbad

$61.00

$0.00

$48.80

$44.80

$49.40

$2,025.40

Dona Ana

$53.90

$49.80

$44.80

$47.10

$46.40

$5,753.60

Grants

$57.20

$51.20

$47.30

$43.10

$49.70

$795.20

Main Campus

$79.10

$65.70

$52.80

$34.80

$63.10

$55,338.70

Total Salaries

$66.5 Million

for 2009-2010

$66,486.90

 

 

 
 

 

 

The I&G monies going to Athletics Budget is $4.1M, which is 6/10th of 1% of the overall budget of $696,854,997 for all campuses in FY 2010-11
If the Administration were to get that money elsewhere than I&G, such as from its ample reserves, then other things could be funded:

 

 

 

 

Therefore for 2009-2010 Total Faculty Salaries

$66,486,900

if No Pay Increase for 2010-1

 

 

 

 

 

NMSU Instruction Funds for 2010-11

$248,211,708

from NMSU Provost's Website

 

 

 

 

 

NMSU Total Operating Budget 2010-11

$696,854,627

from NMSU Provost's Website

 

 

 

 

 

Percent Total Going to Instruction 2010-11

35.62%

means 65.38% is goes elsewhere

 

 

 

 

Percent Total for Faculty Salaries 2010-11

9.54%

or less than 10% of the budget

 

 

 

 

Cost of a 1% Pay Increase for FT Faculty

$664,869

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Percent of Total for 1% Raise

0.10%

or one tenth of 1%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost of a 3% Pay Increase for FT Faculty

$1,994,607

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Percent of Total for 3% Raise

0.29%

or one third of 1%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Admin Proposed Athletic Subsidy

$4,100,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Athl Subsidy as Percent of Total

0.59%

or six tenths of 1%

 

 

As can be seen here, the cost of subsidizing the Athletic Budget translates into just over a 6% pay increase for FT Faculty

for each and every year Athletics is subsidized. 

 

What else might $4.1 Million purchase:

1708

work study students at $1200 per semester

4100000

586

graduate assistants at $7000 per academic year

8200

student textbook scholarships at $500 each

3905

individual pay increases for staff assuming an average $35,000 annual salary

The issue here is to convince the Administration that Athletics should not be funded from I&G monies, except to pay athlete’s tuition and tutoring. Transparency means an audit of the numbers that make up to summary totals. Ironically, non-athletes getting their A’s do not get such subsidies. Perhaps there are savings that can be seen in the details, or a way to fund them differently, so opportunity costs are not as high.

From the Communications Team of NMSU-AAUP

Please check our website at http://nmsuaaup.org for more information on budgeting at NMSU

Thank you.