“He’s going to have his hands full,” said Phil Squattrito, co-chairman of the transition team, chairman of the Academic Senate and professor of chemistry. “Any president is going to have a transition period and a learning curve … He has the additional challenge because he will have to make decisions on the budget.”

Thomas Weirich, an accounting professor, agrees the most critical issue to tackle at this time is Central Michigan University’s budget, which could face significant cuts for the 2010-11 academic year.

Weirich said he knew Ross when he was vice president of Finance and Administrative Services at CMU from December 2002 to March 2007.

Ross addressed the CMU community in an e-mail Monday about a few issues, including the transition, administrative positions and budget. He said he does not want the hard economic times and budget discussions to paralyze the learning environment for CMU students.

On Monday, he will testify at Ferris State University before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education.

“While difficult decisions will be made regarding CMU’s budget, we must remain focused on making strategic decisions today that will position CMU as a stronger institution, ready to take even greater strides forward when the economy recovers,” Ross said in the e-mail.

Budget centers sent 3, 6 and 9 percent reduction plans in February to then-interim President Kathy Wilbur, who wanted to wait until Ross assumed the presidency before revealing possible cuts.

Moving forward

Ross also will spend the next few weeks getting acclimated to campus again.

The transition plan, which includes multiple subcommittees, will last about a year, with the final report due by Feb. 1, 2011, Squattrito said.

“We are hoping for a really good process,” he said. “Talking to people, gathering information. That will take place regardless of what happens with the budget.”

Student Government Association President Jason Nichol said he thinks Ross will take time to familiarize himself with the CMU community before making any decisions.

Nichol, co-chairman of the student priority subteam, is hopeful Ross will take into consideration the students’ concerns.

“At this stage, there is a lot going on,” the Mount Pleasant senior said. “It will highlight any concerns we might have. Tuition will be brought up, student involvement will be brought up. A variety of things will focused on.”

Ross also mentioned filling vacant administrative positions in his e-mail. He said the university will move forward in the near future with several searches.

Weirich is on the search committee for finding a dean for the College of Business Administration. The committee hopes to have candidates for the dean position brought to campus at the end of March.

“It gets his team together to move forward,” Weirich said.

The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the President’s Conference Room at Bovee University Center.

In a previous interview, Interim University President Kathy Wilbur said she expected to have recommendations for how the university should reduce costs by the time trustees convened. She was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Wilbur received the 3, 6 and 9 percent budget reduction recommendations from the cost centers Monday.

Steve Smith, director of public relations, said if Wilbur talks about budget cuts, it will be in the President’s Report. But Smith is uncertain where Wilbur is in her review of the reduction suggestions.

Central Michigan Life sent a Freedom of Information of Act request to Central Michigan University’s general counsel Feb. 8 for the 3, 6 and 9 percent budget reduction suggestions sent to Wilbur. The request was denied Friday.

Also on the Board’s agenda is a proposal to recognize the College of Medicine and make it official, said Interim Medical School Dean Cam Enarson.

“Right now, it’s considered a school, and that’s confusing people,” he said. “(If approved) it’s not just a thought. It’s a formal entity of the university.”

To hire faculty, there needs to be a college to hire them into, Enarson said. The College of Medicine’s approval would make it comparable to the other academic units on campus, he said.

The college’s groundbreaking also will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Health Professions Building.

Other agenda items

Interim Provost Gary Shapiro is requesting approval for the president or designee to sign a three- to five-year contract with a vendor to provide infrastructure for the SAP enterprise computing environment for no more than $500,000 per year.

The SAP computer system is CMU’s basic software package for the administrative community. It is used for financial record keeping, human resources, student records and other things. SAP also is used in some business classes.

The infrastructure is the component needed to run any system, Shapiro said. By signing a contract with another company, CMU would not have to provide all the infrastructure.

“It would allow us to run SAP more effectively and at less cost,” Shapiro said. “(Getting approval) allows us to investigate and to sign a contract if that is in the best interest of the university.”

Other items

Up to $300,000 is being requested for the purchase of National Science Foundation grant-funded equipment for the Department of Human Environmental Studies, with a thermal manikin costing $244,700 and a sweating guarded hotplate costing $42,500. The total comes to $287,200.

A few department name changes also are on the agenda. The Department of Engineering and Technology could be renamed the School of Engineering and Technology.

The Department of Geology is proposed as the Department of Geology and Meteorology.

Student Liaison Meeting

The Student Liaison Committee meeting takes place from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. today in the Bovee University Center Terrace Room C.

The Student Government Association will discuss Student Opinion Survey results being put online, what to do with the increased funding in the Campus Programming Fund and the group’s involvement in the Student Association of Michigan, among other issues.

Jason Nichol, SGA President and Mount Pleasant senior, said the CPF received an additional $26,000 this year, so SGA will discuss different options on how to spend it.

“I was just thrilled to get it, especially in these nasty budget times,” Nichol said.

The meeting also will include a Residential Hall Assembly update including the future of On the Fly Productions programming.

The university expanded with new buildings and programs over the years, and now is enduring a tough state economy and rising tuition. The football team spent the first half of this decade as a bottom-feeder in the Mid-American Conference, then
went on to win three of the last four conference titles.

And now, as a new decade begins, a new page turns at Central Michigan University. Here is what we think CMU should aim for in the first year of the 2010s.

Find a good coach

The football team is in transition with three-year coach Butch Jones leaving for Cincinnati and players such as Dan LeFevour and Antonio Brown on their way out. It is critical to find someone to continue Jones’ winning work at CMU.

Football is a force in the Mount Pleasant economy. Students and alumni will not come to Kelly/Shorts Stadium to see a football team that loses, and local businesses will feel the effects the hardest.

With other big sports such as men’s and women’s basketball not generating excitement, the football team must continue its winning ways.

Athletic Director Dave Heeke has a pressure-filled decision to make.

Lab hours

Last semester, computer labs around campus experienced a slash in hours in order to save $80,000.

This is nothing, however, when compared to the other expenses and projects that the university is embarking upon.

Lab hours at Woldt and Grawn halls should be restored to 24 hours like they used to be. The primary focus of college is to ensure that students have the resources necessary to succeed, and computer labs are a part of those resources.

Many students are busy through out the day between classes, jobs, and other university activities.

Not all can afford to have a computer. The labs solved these problems by allowing students to enter at any time.

A few computer labs are open for 24 hours on certain days, but that’s not enough to satisfy the demand.

At least two computer labs should be open at all times any day of the week so there are enough computers for every students that needs one.

Save money

A sharp eye has to stay on CMU’s budget with Michigan’s economy struggling.

The university just built a new education building.

Rose Arena is undergoing some much-needed renovations.

The medical school add-on to the Health Professions Building is the next big project and will soon begin construction.

While these projects have potential to expand and make CMU better, officials needs to be aware of how much money they are spending.

Michigan’s economy has slowly gotten worse the past few years and won’t improve for awhile.

With tuition increasing every year, CMU’s enrollment will most likely decrease.

Large projects can no longer be the main focus if CMU expects to survive the next decade.

The university will face numerous challenges as we head into the new year.

CMU will have to make some critical decisions to make sure students get their money’s worth in Mount Pleasant.

The Senior Staff Budget Advisory Group launched its Web site Oct. 16 to allow students, faculty and staff to give their opinions on what should be cut from the 2010-11 budget.

“We have nine areas that we will be responding to, but I’m sure there will be some suggestions outside of those areas,” Burdette said. “We will look at the ideas and see if it’s already been covered, or if it is brand new.”

Once the suggestions are sorted, they will be given to the co-chairs of SSBAG — David Burdette, vice president of Finance and Administrative Services, and Gary Shapiro, interim provost, to be looked over and decided which ones might work.

The suggestions can be anything a student, staff or faculty member believe to be valid. The Web site has no planned end date.

In mid-November, the group will submit the final suggestions to interim University President Kathy Wilbur.

All of the suggestions will be looked at and considered, Shapiro said.

“We will look at the suggestions and if needed get outside help to find out if they will have negative effects on the university,” Shapiro said. “We have to find out which ones are plausible.”

Budget cuts are not something the university would like to make regularly, Shapiro said. But listening to input from the university community is something that is encouraged.

“We are always looking to be more efficient,” Burdette said.

University officials are meeting and discussing possible departments and programs to go on the chopping block. Last month, the student body, faculty and staff were asked for feedback on possible ways to save money.

Academic programs are the first priority for funding at CMU. Every other program needs to cut back on their current budget, including the Student Government Association. It should rethink its position on asking for an increase in funding to the Campus Programming fund.

In Michigan, the crisis for funding education keeps getting worse. Governor Jennifer Granholm announced a 3 percent reduction in funding for state universities.

SGA should take the lead here by withdrawing its request. SGA could take it one step further by offering to give back some of the money it receives from the university.

I understand the SGA wants to improve the college experience at CMU.

However, coming from a community college background where I served on the Student Congress and on the Campus Activities Board, I know a bit about the college experience. With a budget of $68,000, one-third of the Campus Programming General Fund at Grand Rapids Community College, our board and many organizations were able to enhance and improve the college experience for students.

I know I will be accused of comparing apples to oranges on the differences between the two colleges.

However, there is almost as many students at GRCC as there are at CMU. This year, GRCC had 17,000 full-time students on its downtown campus. More than 30,000 people are expected to be part of the school when part-time and non-credit students are included, according to the GRCC website.

With this amount of students and with the small amount of funding available while I was a student there, the college experience was never deemphasized. Each department, from programming boards to student life and other organization on campus, increased their efforts for fundraising and put student needs first. No matter what amount the funding, goals were achieved.

Another tool used was the Grand Rapids community itself. It wasn’t uncommon for students to be knocking on business’ doors and making phone calls to help raise funds for many programs at GRCC.

I am not asking the SGA or any other organization to stop or cut back on the college experience at CMU. I am asking them to take the lead and cut back on their own funding.

It is time for SGA to give back. Academic departments at CMU need to continue their mission without cuts to programs that gives us the education sought by students.

Athletics

Athletics received $15,996,661 from the 2009-10 operating budget. With the $5,910,703 athletics generated, it has $21,907,364 for its budget.

Athletics needs to boost its own funds and not draw most of them from CMU’s operating budget. The main focus of CMU is academics, not athletics.

Athletes only make up one percent of the entire student body. It should be reflected in the budget, allocating more funds to programs the entire student body can be a part of. Instead of spending $500,000 on FieldTurf for athletes to practice, some of that money could have been invested in keeping computer labs open 24 hours.
It is instances such as this one where CMU needs to make sure money from the budget is not recklessly spent.

Leadership Institute

The Leadership Institute is another program that can be be cut from the budget, as it costs the school $127,392 in the 2008-09 academic year. While the program can be helpful, it is an extracurricular activity, not an academic program. It is not a need for the university when CMU needs to cut academic departments.

Furthermore, leaders can be developed through experience, not through activities such as these.

However, the scholarship the Leadership Program provides, the Leader Advancement Scholarship, should stay, as candidates of the scholarship are active members of CMU and contribute to several different facets.

Campus entertainment

Program Board’s funding should be reduced, as well. It is allocated $290,000 to spend on entertainment via the Central Programming Fund. Program Board brought rapper Fabolous to CMU back in September for $25,000. The show was a disaster.

On the other hand, South Park creator Trey Parker came to the school free of charge and Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium was packed with students.

The solution to attracting more students is not more money, but spending what money you do have as effectively as possible. Instead of random comedians and speakers coming to campus through out the school year, Program Board should focus on bringing three or four great entertainers to campus each year. Students are more likely to come to a few quality shows throughout the year, not small, random comedians they will forget the next day.

Certain programs and departments have not spent money wisely from the university budget this semester.

Students should vocalize their opinions and let the university know where their tuition money should go — before the university decides for them.