Colorado State Budget Includes $1.6 Million in Reallocation for Undergrad Education, Scholarships

The State Board of Agriculture today approved a budget for Colorado State University highlighted by a reallocation of $1.6 million in funds dedicated to improving undergraduate education and to providing additional funding for undergraduate scholarships.

The budget, approved by the board at its regular meeting in Denver, includes funding increases in the base funding in nine key areas, raised through reallocations in the central budget of the university and moved to these specific improvements:

• $125,000 for freshman seminars, or small classes of 20 students or less for entering freshmen as part of the development of the new core curriculum.
• $175,000 for the Honors Program to expand offerings and improve advising and courses for top-performing students.
• $150,000 for adding courses in high-demand areas to improve the availability of these courses.
• $150,000 for additional faculty in high-demand, technology-driven fields such as computer information systems and electrical and computer engineering.
• $100,000 to add faculty and courses in the College of Business, based on demand.
• $326,000 dedicated to additional undergraduate scholarships.
• $94,000 for funding for the Center for Teaching and Learning, a university center focused on improving faculty teaching techniques and approaches and on improving student learning.
• $78,000 in matching funds for the Hughes Grant, a national program that promotes undergraduate education in life sciences, with a particular emphasis on promoting diversity in these fields.
• $60,000 for expanding international programs.

The overall general education budget for the university increased by 4.4 percent, to $193 million, up from last year’s total of $185 million. Included in this total is an increase of $2.2 million in funding from the Legislature’s general fund, or a 2.8 percent increase to $79.6 million this year, up from $77.4 million last fiscal year.

"This budget shows the emphasis we at Colorado State University continue to place on undergraduate education and how we are concentrating our resources and our energy on providing the best possible education for our students," said President Albert C. Yates. "The coming fiscal year is an important one to Colorado State as we continue our efforts to create an integrated learning environment for our students and to focus on helping our students learn to reach their highest potential."

Other areas of interest in the budget include:

• The Professional Veterinary Medicine Program, consistently ranked among the top-five programs in the country, will have 15 additional slots for Colorado residents in this budget. The program, one of the most difficult to gain admittance to in the country, will make the additional slots open only to Colorado residents.
• A special one-time appropriation from the Legislature of $1.04 million for meeting campus technology needs and an additional $450,000 to be used for hiring additional information and instructional technology personnel. Of the $450,000 dedicated to technology, $323,000 came from reallocation from the central administration.
• A mandatory student fee increase of only 1.89 percent, or less than the inflation rate in the Denver-Boulder area.
• Average faculty and administrative professional merit raises of three percent, with a benefits increase of .4 percent, bring to total increase to 3.4 percent.
• An increase of 2.4 percent in tuition, for both resident and non-resident students, as set by the legislature. Also, an increase of 2.5 percent in rates for the residence halls, meal plans and monthly apartment rates (with some variation among apartment units.) The standard residence hall rate increased 2.4 percent while the meal plan increase average increased 2.6 percent.
• Enrollment growth is expected to continue to be strong in the coming year, improving even on last year’s record enrollment. In the Fall of 1998, Colorado State saw a 20 percent increase in the number of in-state residents enrolling at the university.