Finding the funding for UHCL’s four-year initiative

This semester, UHCL completed its four-year initiative by opening its doors to freshmen and sophomores. The idea to transform UHCL into a four-year institution began negotiations as far back as 2007.

When the passage of Senate Bill 324, authored by former state Sen. Mike Jackson, marked the beginning of UHCL as a four-year university June 29, 2011, with Governor Perry’s signature, the university’s President William Staples proclaimed it as “a major milestone.”

There was one problem, though…no one funded it.

Staples said that legislative approval for downward expansion usually occurs before the actual awarding of downward expansion funding.

“The specific request for funding UHCL’s downward expansion as an exceptional item was not funded,” Staples said. “Historically, state funding for downward expansion by universities is not provided for the first year.”

As an example, Staples cited the fall 2010 University of Houston-Victoria’s first freshman class, which began without downward expansion funding that was requested in the 2009 legislative session.

Staples stated that in the 2011 session of the Texas Legislature, UHV was granted funding for the start of the 2011-2012 academic year. “The same was true for the downward expansion of Texas A&M-Texarkana, which began offering freshman classes in 2010 and did not receive state funding for downward expansion until the 2011 session,” Staples said.

In preparation for the next legislative session, UHCL is requesting funding for downward expansion in its 2015 Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR). Prior to each legislative session, each public university submits a LAR.

UHCL’s first LAR hearing occurred Sept. 15, 2014. UHCL’s LAR for Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017 was submitted Aug. 4, 2014, to the Governor’s Office of Budget Planning and Policy and the Legislative Budget Board.

As for Fiscal Year 2014, Staples maintained that UHCL’s first freshman class would not exactly be high and dry.

“UHCL received an additional $1,000,000 in Institutional Enhancement funds, which could be used for high priority needs for UHCL including downward expansion,” Staples said.

While the 2013 Texas Legislature pitched a financial no-hitter for the university, Staples was philosophical about the outcome and what comes next.

“Legislators consider a range of factors when deliberating the merits of the many bills and funding requests presented throughout a legislative session,” Staples said. “Ultimately, they are charged with making decisions to address critical issues with statewide implications. Some items are funded and some are not, which is typical for any legislative session.”

Staples is optimistic about UHCL’s chances of receiving funds in the next session based on what happened with UHV and A&M-Texarkana. If and when UHCL receives funding supplied by the Texas Legislature in 2015, one remaining question is what will the retroactive funds be spent on.

“Any funds received for downward expansion will be used to fund personnel and programmatic needs related to serving freshmen and sophomores for the second year of downward expansion in 2015-2016,” Staples said. “This could include faculty and staff positions, expansion of student retention and success initiatives, and facility renovation, among others.”

Michelle Dotter, Vice President of UHCL’s Finance Department, said that in 2013 the Texas Legislature curtailed funding for what is known as a “special item request.”

“Special item requests are slightly different from the Institutional Enhancement fund,” Dotter said. “What we need to do next time is request what is called ‘formal funding,’ which is driven by student credit hours. This is why they didn’t fund us in 2013.”

The next legislative session starts in August 2015. Dotter stressed two specific goals for the 2015 session.

“The first thing is basically telling them, ‘Look, you messed up last time, so we want you to make up for it,’ and so we will request what is known as ‘startup funding,’ which restores funds previously spent,” Dotter said. “That will amount to approximately $4,775,000.”

Dotter said that the second legislative goal would cover the four-year initiative using startup money going forward from 2016.

“We’ll be asking for $3.5 million per year until we reach 1,500 FTIC (First-time students in college),” Dotter said. “That should take roughly 10 years.”

Currently, first-time students for the 2014 fiscal year totals about 450. As for where university funding stands on the Texas Legislature’s list of priorities, Dotter is uncertain.

“We have no idea, but as with UH-Victoria and Texas A&M-Texarkana, we weren’t the first university to experience this situation…yet, as with those two universities, who received their funding the following year, I am very optimistic about the next time,” Dotter said.