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• During FY03, external funding for research at UGA grew to just under $150 million—an increase of more than 64 percent over the past five years. This is the direct result of an aggressive program of hiring, identifying and supporting faculty whose research has the potential for such funding, and demonstrates UGA’s commitment to finding sources of funding beyond the state budget to carry out our mission, all while state funding for the Georgia Research Alliance has declined significantly.

• External funding for research also contributes directly to the economic development of the state by creating new jobs.

• $57 million of UGA’s external research funding last year paid the salaries of more than 1,300 faculty and staff.

• Additionally, income from licensing fees and royalties on UGA discoveries and inventions grew 9.1 percent last year, to $4.2 million, culminating in 53.2 percent growth over five years.

• On average, a bachelor’s degree adds almost a million dollars to the lifetime earnings of a college graduate, compared to the earnings of a high school graduate. And as you can see, the added value of a graduate or professional degree is considerably higher.

• The economic implications are clear: $5.4 billion in additional income in Georgia from a single graduating class. The state’s investment in UGA generates a return of 1,287 percent, based on FY03 numbers.

• We all know that higher incomes correlate to community stability, civic involvement, home ownership, job creation, philanthropy and a host of other values that are more difficult to quantify but no less significant to the health of our state.

• This return on investment, however, accrues to the state only if UGA can maintain the quality that has helped attract and retain top faculty and to enroll the best students.

How has state support declined?

• The Georgia legislature has a long and proud history of supporting higher education in Georgia, and UGA in particular. State support for UGA remained relatively constant from 1993 to 1999. At the same time, the HOPE Scholarship was helping keep many of Georgia’s best students at home for college.

• The fruits of that support are UGA’s high national ranking, the quality of the student body, a campus enhanced by a number of important state-funded facilities and the remarkable work of UGA’s faculty.

• In recent years, however, the level of state support has dropped dramatically at the same time that enrollment has increased. In short, we are being asked to do more, at a higher level of quality, with fewer of the resources that are required to do the job.

• In FY 1999, 43 percent of UGA’s budget was direct state appropriation; in FY 2004, state-appropriated dollars accounted for only 35.5 percent of UGA’s budget. This not only reflects the decline in state funding, but also our aggressive pursuit of external funding.

• While the state portion of our budget has declined—and we have felt the pain—UGA’s total budget has increased through growth in research funding and other areas.

• During this same period of time, enrollment at UGA increased by 4,185 students; credit hour production since 1999 has increased 9.6 percent.

• As Chancellor Meredith has pointed out recently, University System appropriations are at their lowest level as a percentage of the total state budget since 1967 (11.3 percent).

Is the state spending less per student at UGA?

• Since 1999, the amount appropriated by the state to UGA per student has dropped $2,645, while tuition has increased only $898. We have passed along only one-third of the deficit in state support to our students.

• The situation I am describing is not unique to UGA or to the state of Georgia. Nationally, state appropriations for higher education fell 2.1 percent this year.

• You might be interested in how some other institutions are addressing the issue of budget cuts.
Is UGA building its endowment?

• UGA is working very hard to generate support for our missions from other sources. I mentioned earlier the growth in external funding for research.

• Another area of support is in our endowment. We are aggressively seeking private funds, and we have made some progress over the past few years.

• But, as you can see, we are far behind such institutions as North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Virginia.

• Endowments of the size held by these institutions provide a buffer against the kind of drop in state funding that we have experienced at UGA recently. Unfortunately, our endowment is not currently large enough to provide that buffer—the return on our investment this year provided $14 million, or 1.2 percent of the total budget at UGA.

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