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Eastern Ad-Hoc Budget Committee
Minutes
April 11, 2011
Connecticut Room, Gelsi-Young Hall

 

Attendance: Dave Bachand, Pat Banach, Karyl Bulmer, Karen Collins, David Cummings, Dennis Hannon, Jim Howarth, Drew Hyatt, Brian Lashley, David Mariasi, Denise Matthews, William Newell, Elsa Núñez, Dimitrios Pachis, Michael Pernal, William Salka, Joe Tolisano, Robert Wolf

Absent: Pat Christadore, Jennifer Brown, Kristin Jacobi, Diane Moore, Reece Painter-Payne,

Meeting commenced at 10:00 am

Motion to accept the revised minutes of the previous meeting (Hyatt, Wolf - Passed)

Legislative Hearing and Status – President Núñez and Bill Salka

  • There was a discussion about some of the different proposed union givebacks.
  • The vote on the Governor’s budget could happen by the end of May or get pushed off until August. The Governor’s budget is contingent on union givebacks. Eleven out of the thirteen bargaining units have to agree to the concessions for them to happen.
  • The vote on the reorganization bill should occur around May 1.

Computer Energy Usage/Program Updates – Joe Tolisano

  • CIO Tolisano spoke about computer energy usage on campus. A script can be written to shut down and restart computers in labs, but could be troublesome if the computers don’t always reboot and receive updates. When a monitor is in sleep mode the energy usage is minimal. The script could be tested on a series of computers in Webb Hall to see how it goes.
  • The use of Thin Client has reduced energy usage, hardware storage, maintenance, and support issues. We should be able to install more Thin Client machines by next Spring.
  • IT will be moving everything over to the new data centers located in the Science Building and the Communications Building. The two data centers will mirror each other.

Budget Status – Jim Howarth and Dennis Hannon

  • Savings in utilities are being realized due in part to IT, facilities, the Encellium program, and the commissioning of the science building. Consumption of natural gas and electricity is down approximately 12% and 6.5% respectively.
  • The FY12 Spending Plan was submitted to System Office with a balanced budget. We set more aside in FY11 for the 27th payroll in FY12 because the state is not going to fund the general fund portion of that payroll. The budget includes all contractual increases.
  • The balanced budget is a result of a lot of people holding costs down; bringing in $2.1 million from FY11 for 27th payroll; not putting money into debt service prefunding; the 2.5% tuition and fees rate increase; and a 1% increase in undergrad enrollment.
  • There was a discussion about proposed reduction scenarios for a 10% reduction in state funding. Scenarios were not in any specific order and are only proposed.
  • It is not known yet where the savings from the reorganization will go. The savings will most likely be in FY13 because most of the System Office employees require a 1-year notification.

Work $mart – Pat Banach and Jim Howarth

  • The committee meets every two weeks. Responses to Work $mart suggestions have been received and will be posted on the web soon. Future responses will be posted as they are received.
  • In addition to being able to make Work $mart suggestions, students have the opportunity to speak with Dr Núñez when she visits the residence halls each year.

New Business – General Discussion All

  • It is important that we make sure people are not using the word “merger” when talking about the higher education reorganization. We need to get the word out that Eastern is not going to change.

A meeting may be called in May. People can call-in if they cannot be there in person.

Meeting adjourned at 11:25 am

Respectfully submitted,

 

Karyl Bulmer
Financial Specialist