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| 2004-05 BUDGET PRESENTATION | |
 s the Commonwealth’s largest public university, Penn State has a long and successful tradition of educating Pennsylvania’s citizens, as well as providing valuable research and service that have strengthened Pennsylvania and added to our quality of life. |
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| Penn State’s contribution of talent, intellect, and service to the Commonwealth is enormous. In addition to educating over 83,000 students on our 24 campuses, we also play an essential role in improving the state’s labor force by enrolling more students in professional, occupational, and technical programs than any other institution. Penn State is the largest non-governmental employer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We also foster technological and economic growth through the more than $545 million in research performed at Penn State, and provide unmatched resources and expertise to our communities through Cooperative Extension. | |
| In Penn State’s 2004-05 appropriation request to the Commonwealth, we seek to have our appropriation restored to the 2001-02 level. These funds will not be used simply to replace the budget cuts we have made over the last two years. Rather, they will be used to help support basic operating cost increases, with special emphases on escalating health care costs, deferred maintenance and facilities improvements, competitive faculty and staff salary adjustments, and high priority academic program initiatives. | |
| While we are mindful of the financial challenges facing the Commonwealth, we believe that this is a modest request in light of the decreases in the state appropriation that Penn State has received over the last two years. If the Commonwealth is able to restore our appropriation to the 2001-02 level, the University will be able to hold the basic tuition increase for Pennsylvania resident students to 4.0 percent. | |
| In addition, we are once again requesting special support for only one area of critical need, Penn State’s College of Medicine. We focus on this single special request because the only academic medical center in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh is in jeopardy. Penn States College of Medicine has substantial economic, social, and employment impacts on the Commonwealth. Its importance as a training ground for future generations of health care professionals, its reputation for quality health care, and the life-saving advances that are routinely discovered at Hershey point to the urgency of additional support for our College of Medicine. | |
| Over the past decade we have aggressively trimmed budgets, producing nearly $110 million in budget reallocations. Penn State is ranked as one of the most efficient universities in America. We remain committed to cost containment and belt-tightening measures, but a continuing erosion of our state funding base has a direct effect on the educational, civic, and economic vitality of Pennsylvania. As support from the Commonwealth diminishes, the burden of financing higher education has increasingly fallen on our students and their families -- effectively raising barriers of affordability for many. Public institutions like Penn State were created specifically to open opportunity and broaden access to higher education. We must ensure that this mission continues. | |
| While access to a college education is critical to individual success, it is also paramount to the future success of the Commonwealth. An increase in the number of individuals with greater | |
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problem-solving skills and technological knowledge can help advance the state in many ways. Returning to the level of support Penn State received two years ago and providing special support to the College of Medicine will not only help keep education accessible, it also will allow Penn State to continue its historic contribution to Pennsylvania. Through this critical investment, Penn State continues to stand with the Commonwealth in securing the future of its citizens by developing a more educated, more productive, more competitive Pennsylvania. |
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