“Inside FAU” – March 2009
From President Frank T. Brogan
It’s
President of Florida Atlantic University. I have got a
great opportunity not only to have been a student of this fine
institution but has mentioned also her president. I am here
today at the wonderful Wimberly Library of Florida Atlantic
University I have the opportunity to talk to all of you a little
bit about our present budget situation and in future segments we
will have the opportunity to talk about other facets of this
great university where these words headed in the future.
These are very difficult economic days for all of us at Florida
Atlantic University and of course all of us in the country but we
want you to know that Florida Atlantic University even though
were making those difficult decisions today we are going to do it
in the way that will see that were organized for the
future. Currently we are over 27,000 students at FAU, nine
great colleges undergraduate and graduate programming and
certainly a budding research portfolio that seems to be growing
with the year. Great partnerships are bounded Florida
Atlantic University and our award-winning faculty and our
outstanding students and our service oriented staff continued to
make this a jewel in the crown of the State University
System. So while we deal with these budget reductions we
know that were basing all of it on maintaining high quality
service to our students, continuing to support world-class
faculty and creating change for the better with the 21
st Century of Florida Atlantic University. We
have already trimmed $20,000,000.00 from our budget at FAU.
We are cutting now $12,000,000.00 during this fiscal year and we
have just received word that that will increase to an additional
$15,000,000.00 during the next fiscal period. All of this
comes from a $500,000,000.00 total budget at FAU but even more
only from approximately half of that as it relates to State
dollars both into vision and State subsidy which makes
(inaudible) from which were reducing even smaller and therefore
more difficult, the highway wind doing this well. Of course
the obvious sweeping working on travel freezers and hiring
freezers we have been carefully scrutinizing the way we look at
our programming opportunities and activities and how we drive
services at FAU and so thus far we tried to maintain the
classroom, the laboratory as our number one priority will
continue to do that. But at the same time these additional
cuts are getting more and more difficult. We are
predicating our position on the fact that while reducing our
budget at the same time we are going to reorganize Florida
Atlantic University for the future and make sure that we are not
just surviving these budget reductions in this tough fiscal
period but that when we come out the other side we do so as a new
university dedicated to the future for our students or faculty
and our staff. To that end we are looking at continuing to
reduce administrative lines we are scrutinizing every academic
program at Florida Atlantic University for liability and
efficiency. We are looking at the way we are organized
currently with seven campuses and sites and recognizing that the
number of duplicated services that we are providing both academic
and support need to be paired back for the future to ensure that
we are not only meeting the budget reductions but again to make
sure that we do more than survive but flourish in the
future. So at the end of the day it is easy to see that
everyone’s life will be affected by these budget
reductions. In some ways through program reduction, in
other ways through choices that was difficult as program closure
and perhaps even lay off. But all of this again is being
based on the ideal that the future of this university is more
important than anything else. I will try to keep all of you
apprise as to how this is evolving over time as we go to the
board of trustees with these budget recommendations for the
future as we continue to take ideas and suggestions for both in
and outside of the university as to how ably we can create
greater efficiency and productivity about how we might reorganize
and redesign ourself but at the end of the day as I know has been
the case of Florida Atlantic University these decisions will be
made together as a family no matter how difficult it might
be. Again I want to thank everyone for what they do at
Florida Atlantic University and will come back you again from
other sites and locations around FAU as we continue to examine
inside Florida Atlantic University. Thank you.
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