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Regents send $1.7 billion budget request to legislature
The board of regents has put forth a $1.715 billion budget request for the 2002 fiscal year. The request will be considered for funding by Gov. Roy Barnes and the general assembly during the 2001 legislative session.
“We have some major challenges ahead of us, and this budget will help us tackle them,” says Chancellor Stephen R. Portch. “Considerable resources have been invested to bring the University System to the competitive position we’re in today, so we must maintain our momentum. I’m optimistic that we still can achieve much more; however, we must build on our progress and continue to raise expectations and standards.”
An area of major emphasis in the budget request, with an as-yet-undetermined price tag, is the faculty salary requests. While the University System’s competitive position within the then 16-state Southern region moved from sixth in 1994 to second in 1998, it returned to fifth during the 1999-2000 fiscal year. (Delaware has joined SREB since then and currently ranks first on salaries).
Among the $50.4 million in enhancement requests included in the budget request, $18.2 million is aimed at technology initiatives, which, if approved, would fund new demands and continue existing efforts. Among the regents’ requests for additional and/or continuing initiatives is $5 million for UGA/Medical College of Georgia research.
North Campus parking deck is now open on weekends
To accommodate student requests for a more lenient schedule on weekends at the North Campus parking deck, parking services has changed the weekend operations schedule of the deck on a trial basis to allow overnight parking on Friday and Saturday nights.
Under a new schedule implemented this past week, there is only one weekend towing time to clear the deck: 1 a.m. on Mondays. Daily towing will continue Tuesday through Friday mornings at 5 a.m. The new schedule is not effective on the six home football weekends.
In addition, vehicles displaying a current north deck permit will now be allowed to park in the deck 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except on football weekends.
Standard entry rules will apply: vehicles with any valid UGA parking pass for any zone may use the deck without further charge after 5:15 p.m. daily and on weekends. Those without UGA parking passes are charged $3.
“The North Campus deck is a key location for football parking, so we are unable to implement this plan over the six home football weekends,” says Doug Ross, director of auxiliary services, whose responsibilities include supervision of parking services. “But we’ll analyze how it works over other weekends the remainder of this semester, with the expectation that it can become a permanent change.”
Online M.B.A. program graduates its first class
Forty-one men and women graduated Sept. 15 as the first class of distance-learning students under an M.B.A. program sponsored by the Terry College of Business and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Designed for management consultants working for PricewaterhouseCoopers, the two-year program provides both a broad perspective and an in-depth study of business areas essential to the consultants’ everyday practice.
Students from across the United States and Canada took part in the M.B.A. program through online distance learning and in-class instruction. They were on campus one long weekend about three months, and the rest of the program was by e-mail, Web-based course materials and virtual classrooms.
Commencement was held at the Chapel.
PricewaterhouseCoopers recently renewed the program for four more years; two more classes of M.B.A. students are currently enrolled.
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