The Board of Governors of the State System of Higher Education will seek a state appropriation of $455.1 million next year to help fund the operation of the 14 state-owned universities. The request represents an increase of $17.5 million, or 4 percent, over the current year’s appropriation.

The System’s overall proposed educational and general budget for the 2000-01 school year totals $953.6 million, about half of which would come from student tuition and required fees. The total represents a 4.1 percent increase over the 1999-2000 operating budget.

The budget would include a shortfall of about $15 million, which would need to be addressed either through a tuition increase or other means. The Board will consider the various options in the Spring.

The State System increased tuition by $150 this year, to $3,618 for Pennsylvania residents. Tuition at the schools has increased on average by less than 2.5 percent a year over each of the last three years.

“Our appropriation request reflects the efforts we have undertaken in recent years to control our costs while continuing to ensure our students access to a high quality, affordable education,” said Board Chairman F. Eugene Dixon Jr.

The State System is engaged in a comprehensive review of all of its academic and administrative functions in order to improve cost-effectiveness and efficiency, to enhance services, to constrain the growth of costs and to generate increased revenue.

“We want our universities to operate as efficiently as possible while being able to offer the highest quality programs,” said Chancellor James H. McCormick. “While seeking to keep our costs down, we also must continue to invest in new technology and in the development of new programs that will meet the needs of Pennsylvania’s changing economy.”

In addition to the general appropriations request, the Board of Governors also approved several special appropriations requests for the next fiscal year. They are: $2 million for the Corporate Alliance for Pennsylvania; $2 million for science and advanced technology education; $3.4 million for information systems integration; $500,000 for the Pennsylvania Academy for the Profession of Teaching; $500,000 for the Labor Education Institute; $1.7 million for social equity initiatives; $440,000 for McKeever Environmental Learning Center; and $2.2 million for expansion of the Keystone Library Network to Pennsylvania’s community colleges.

The Corporate Alliance for Pennsylvania will work with business and industry in the development of programs designed specifically to meet the workforce needs of employers in the Commonwealth. The Office of Corporate Alliances will serve as a statewide point of contact for business and government groups promoting workforce and economic development.

Funds designated for science and advanced technology education will be used to enhance existing degree programs and to develop new programs in such areas as electronics, electro-optics, biotechnology/bioengineering, multimedia, software engineering, information technology and environmental science.

The System is preparing for implementation of a shared integrated administrative system and central data repository, which could result in significant future savings for the campuses – an estimated $29 million over 10 years. The cost of developing a pilot program and the central data repository is estimated at $6.8 million. The Board’s request represents a 50 percent match from the Commonwealth in the investment in these two important initiatives.

The Pennsylvania Academy for the Profession of Teaching is a collaborative effort led by the State System with the Commonwealth’s K-16 education community. The academy’s mission is to enrich and enhance the professional development of educators and to implement public policy initiatives related to education, specifically including an alignment of exit/entry levels for students leaving high school and entering college or the workforce.

The Labor Education Institute is a cooperative educational venture among the State System and labor organizations across the Commonwealth. The institute’s major goals include preparing labor for an enhanced role in workforce development and participating with teachers to incorporate into the public school curriculum an understanding of the role of organized labor in Pennsylvania’s economy.

The special purpose appropriation for social equity initiatives would provide for the continuation of programs designed to recruit disadvantaged students to System universities, including the widely successful partnership programs with school districts in and around Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Erie and Meadville.

The McKeever Environmental Learning Center was created by the Commonwealth in 1974 to assist citizens of all ages in becoming better stewards of the earth’s resources. The center’s programs are administered by Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

The Keystone Library Network (KLN) brings together electronically the resources of all 14 System university libraries. It also provides an electronic database and information service that further enhances the resources available to students, faculty and other campus users, while actually saving the State System $1.2 million through collaborative purchasing. Earlier this year, the State System and Pennsylvania Department of Education announced an interagency alliance in which the Commonwealth’s State Library became a full-fledged member of the KLN. This special appropriation request, to be submitted jointly with Pennsylvania’s 15 community colleges, would cover the initial capital costs to link the colleges to the Keystone Library Network. This alliance would extend the information resources available through the KLN to an additional 200,000 community college students.

With more than 95,000 students, the State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Nearly 350,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.