Since what follows may be considered "opinion," I am not posting through
the "official" UTCINFO route. Ironic, isn't it, a university where the
exchange of ideas (opinions) must be monitored.

First, I welcome the opportunity presented by Provost Friedl to examine the
difficult choices and alternatives in the academic affairs budget.
Apparently there is a 3% across the board minimum increase suggested, which
tuition and other funds might augment. Since this will follow a year of
zero increase, the real increase over two years will be something like
1.5%, depending on when it will be implemented (fiscal, academic, or
calendar year), which is --- once again -- below the rate of inflation of
2.2% (August). The gradual loss of buying power, now more than a decade
old, will continue.

But let's not forget the total amount of money coming into the university
from all sources. I am sure that  Vice Chancellor Brown,  Athletic Director
Sloane, and the other Vice Chancellors all face the same difficult
decisions about mandatory and optional spending in their budget proposals.
We have been promised by Chancellor Stacy that their budgets will also be
made available. This will dispel faculty discontent based on the suspicion
that spending priorities have been directed elsewhere away from our
academic mission.

That is why I was encouraged at the Budget Meeting last Monday when
Chancellor Stacy began his comments by asserting that our most important
mission is education. He followed with a dire survey of higher education
funding in general, and the UT system in particular. He is absolutely
right: we should not expect a larger pie any time soon, and in fact with
TennCare deficits and public displeasure at administrators at the top of
the UT hierarchy, funding for higher education in Tennessee will certainly
drop.

That is exactly why the UTC community expects and deserves (without
invoking Freedom of Information law) a full and open discussion
of  campus-wide budget priority decisions,  just as Provost Friedl has done
with the Academic Affairs budget.

That's my opinion,

Richard Rice
Faculty Secretary