2008 Woodie Awards
Fulbright College lacks funding
Gentry Lassiter
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: News
The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences has grown significantly within the last decade, but funding for the college has not increased at a rate to appropriately accommodate the growth, some Fulbright College officials have said.
Donald Bobbitt, the dean of Fulbright College, and Adam Motherwell, assistant dean for finance and administration of Fulbright College, presented a proposed budget for the college last Tuesday, which included budget increases of more than $5 million.
The request included provisions to increase salaries for 31 assistant professors, 30 associate professors and 106 professors to their peers' averages, an increase of nearly $2 million.
Also, the college intends to increase stipends for 319 graduate students and allocate amounts necessary to bring some full-time and part-time instructors to competitive salaries.
Fulbright College, as a result of the comparatively low salaries for its faculty, has lost some notable faculty members, Bobbitt said.
"We've lost some excellent young colleagues and some excellent not-so-young colleagues, and we're probably going to lose some more," he said.
Fulbright College officials have proposed an allocation of about $1.5 million toward creating 20 new assistant professor positions at a salary of $60,000.
The estimated cost to cover 300 additional freshmen for the upcoming academic year will be nearly $400,000.
"The difficult challenge for a university is to allocate resources in the best way possible and, in a sense, everyone is competing for the same money," Motherwell said.
"Everyone needs more money is basically the conclusion we have reached," he said.
Fulbright College officials conducted an analysis of budget increases for UA colleges over the last decade. Fulbright College has the lowest increase of the seven colleges examined, with a net increase in overall budget of 37.6 percent to slightly more than $38 million, according to the final budget summaries from the UA budget office.
Donald Bobbitt, the dean of Fulbright College, and Adam Motherwell, assistant dean for finance and administration of Fulbright College, presented a proposed budget for the college last Tuesday, which included budget increases of more than $5 million.
The request included provisions to increase salaries for 31 assistant professors, 30 associate professors and 106 professors to their peers' averages, an increase of nearly $2 million.
Also, the college intends to increase stipends for 319 graduate students and allocate amounts necessary to bring some full-time and part-time instructors to competitive salaries.
Fulbright College, as a result of the comparatively low salaries for its faculty, has lost some notable faculty members, Bobbitt said.
"We've lost some excellent young colleagues and some excellent not-so-young colleagues, and we're probably going to lose some more," he said.
Fulbright College officials have proposed an allocation of about $1.5 million toward creating 20 new assistant professor positions at a salary of $60,000.
The estimated cost to cover 300 additional freshmen for the upcoming academic year will be nearly $400,000.
"The difficult challenge for a university is to allocate resources in the best way possible and, in a sense, everyone is competing for the same money," Motherwell said.
"Everyone needs more money is basically the conclusion we have reached," he said.
Fulbright College officials conducted an analysis of budget increases for UA colleges over the last decade. Fulbright College has the lowest increase of the seven colleges examined, with a net increase in overall budget of 37.6 percent to slightly more than $38 million, according to the final budget summaries from the UA budget office.
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