|
|
LEGISLATIVE TESTIMONY
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III
President
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County
February-March 2004
Our Vision | The State of the University | Students | Faculty
Research | Professional Education and Service | Technology Development
Private Giving | Impact of Budget Cuts | Summary of FY2005 Budget Request
Response to Analysts Comments | UMBC Faculty Start-Up Companies
OUR VISION: ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND SOCIAL VITALITY
I am delighted to be here to report to you on UMBC's progress and to respond to questions you may have regarding our FY 2004 and FY 2005 budgets.
UMBC is a major public research university, emphasizing graduate programs in the sciences, engineering, public policy, and human services, and building on a strong undergraduate liberal arts and sciences core. First and foremost, UMBC focuses on the quality of the educational experience of our students, and we are distinctive among the nation's research universities because of our emphasis on undergraduate education, reflecting our tradition of linking research and teaching. It was especially gratifying to be named by Newsweek as one of America's twelve "Hot Schools" this past year. We are an exciting campus with a bold vision and entrepreneurial spirit. It is an amazing story that we have come so far so fast, in less than 40 years. Investment in UMBC has generated a high return for the State, and we are determined to continue attracting and educating growing numbers of students who will enter Maryland's workforce and reflect the diversity of our State.We also are recognized increasingly as a major resource for both building the State's economy and addressing its social concerns. UMBC fosters economic development primarily through (1) research and training-related contracts and grants; (2) technology development, including the activities of our technology center, techcenter@umbc, and our research park, bwtech@umbc; (3) partnerships involving continuing education and business outreach; and (4) workforce development.
UMBC also supports Maryland's economic development in more general ways related to our rapid development as a major research university. We now enroll 11,900 students (including 9,650 undergraduates); employ approximately 1,850 full-time and 250 part-time faculty and staff; have an operating budget of roughly $293 million, including an annual payroll of $154 million and over $85 million annually in research-and-training contracts and grants; and we have roughly 40,000 alumni, nearly three-quarters of whom live and work in Maryland and contribute to its economic and social vitality.
UMBC offers bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. programs in the physical and life sciences, social and behavioral sciences, engineering, mathematics, information technology, and the humanities and visual and performing arts. New master's degree programs are being offered in education and teaching; new certificate programs are being offered in geographic information science, cartography, and American contemporary music; and our offerings at the Universities at Shady Grove now include a bachelor's degree program in psychology. We combine the emphasis on teaching found at the best liberal arts colleges with the innovation of a research university, producing graduates who are strong thinkers and have substantive experience with cutting-edge technologies and issues. Almost all either go on to leading graduate and professional schools or immediately join the workforce.
Brainpower and knowledge are fueling discoveries and innovation, and increasingly we are building on these strengths by collaborating with others. We are creating multi-level partnerships to connect faculty and students with companies, agencies, and school systems. Examples of how these partnerships have enabled us to leverage State funds include (1) renovating biology and chemistry facilities with support from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health; (2) building first-rate biochemistry laboratories through partnerships with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Guilford Pharmaceuticals; (3) developing major new research centers with support from NASA (we rank16th nationally among universities in NASA funding) and such companies as Northrop Grumman; (4) contributing in the policy arena in gerontology, the environment, health care, and teacher education with support from Maryland's Departments of Health & Mental Hygiene and Education, and with federal support from NSF, the Department of Education, and other agencies; and (5) strengthening campus life by constructing impressive new residence halls with private support.
back to top
THE STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY: FACING CHALLENGES FROM A POSITION OF STRENGTH
UMBC's rapid development as a major research university is reflected by its recognition and classification as a Carnegie Research Extensive University, which constitutes the top tier of American research universities. Only 152 (4%) of the nation's 3,500 colleges and universities are included in this elite category. In a separate ranking by the National Science Foundation reflecting federally funded research in science and engineering, UMBC ranks 147th nationally (a rapid rise from 200th in 1996). (See Figure 1.) This leap is especially significant because most of the other nationally ranked institutions are substantially larger and older than UMBC (and often include medical centers).
Federally Funded Research
UMBC also is among a relatively small number of colleges and universities with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter (we were one of the youngest campuses ever to earn this designation), reflecting our strength in the liberal arts, and we remain the only public campus in Maryland with a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. The campus also is a two-time recipient of the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. We also consistently rank among the leading producers nationally of bachelor's degrees in information technology and have been designated a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance by the National Security Agency. This year, we also are among a small number of universities to receive both a multi-year, multi-million-dollar ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation, in recognition of our strengths in preparing women in science and engineering, and a major grant through NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program to prepare more minority Ph.D.s in science.
These achievements have occurred despite significant, mandated budget cuts in recent years that have placed the campus at 64% of the funding-guideline goal for the University System of Maryland. These reductions have been particularly significant because we have never fully recovered from the mandated budget cuts of the early 1990s. We were not funded at the recommended guideline then, and we have never ìreplacedî the funds that were lost at that time. Nor have we been able to restore fully programs that were eliminated, nor reinstitute services that we eliminated. A 1997 legislative audit reminded us of our crucial unmet needs in such areas as academic advising, course access, and critical library and information-technology resources. During the past five years, we have been able to address many, but not all, of those shortcomings.
While UMBC's State-supported budget has grown, overall, in recent years, so has the campus. Since 1999, the number of full-time equivalent students increased from 7,800 to nearly 9,300 (19%) (Figure 2); sponsored contracts and grants grew from $51 million to $85 million (67%) (Figure 3); total degrees conferred per year increased from approximately 1,850 to almost 2,200 (19%); and the number of students living on campus has increased 35% -- from 2,350 to 3,170 -- and from 33% to nearly 40% of our full-time undergraduate population. While these kinds of changes have contributed to UMBC's continuing transformation, they also have generated new demands on our operations that seriously tax our ability to respond. For example, because of retirements, deaths, and competition from other universities and industry, our number State-supported instructional faculty has increased during this period by only 14%.
Enrollments
Contracts and Grants
UMBC's current strengths and solid foundation reflect the efforts of State leaders, our faculty, staff, and students as well as years of careful thinking, ambitious planning, and hard decisions. UMBC has managed for results, and the State's investment and confidence in us have produced solid returns.
back to top
THE UMBC COMMUNITY: QUALITY, ACHIEVEMENTS, CONTRIBUTIONS
Students
UMBC's freshman class of just over 1,500 students is our largest by far this decade, and one of our largest ever. It also is among the most diverse nationally (37% minority, including 23% Asian, 11% African American, and 3% Hispanic and Native American). It includes hundreds of valedictorians and 4.0 students, and the top quartile mean SAT is 1379. (Figure 4)
SATs
We also have admitted substantially more students with SAT scores above 1450, demonstrating UMBC's increasing attractiveness to high-achieving students and the success of our special scholars programs' the Meyerhoff Scholars, Linehan Artist Scholars, Humanities Scholars, Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars, and Center for Women & Information Technology Scholars programs.
Our total headcount enrollment of nearly 11,900 has produced an annual FTE enrollment of 9,271, which represents a 19% increase in just five years. This growth is consistent with plans approved by the Board of Regents and meets our projection goals. Our enrollment growth, coupled with students' interest in having a residential experience, has led to expansion of our on-campus student residential space.
Producing well-prepared graduates who can respond to Maryland's workforce needs is one of UMBC's most important and lasting contributions to economic development. Graduates move easily into the workforce in areas related to their majors -- from engineering and IT firms to public and social service agencies and public school systems throughout the State.
Student Research and Scholarship
Providing research opportunities, both on-campus and off-campus, for undergraduates is an important part of UMBC's culture. In fact, we were one of only 13 universities to receive the 2003 Beckman Scholar Award that funds a year of undergraduate research for five undergraduates in biology or chemistry/biochemistry. Other recipients included Carnegie Mellon, William and Mary, the University of California-San Diego, the University of Arizona, and Macalester College, among others.A number of our students also earned prestigious awards, competing successfully with students from across the country:
- This year we produced our first Truman Fellow (the only one enrolled at a Maryland university), a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, three Fulbright finalists, three Merck Fellows (out of 12 awards nationally), and a National Geographic intern.
- Other undergraduates received prestigious awards from the American Mathematics Society, the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of York (England), and the American College Theatre Festival.
- New graduate students included a Fulbright Scholar, a Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies Research Fellow, and principal and co-principal investigators on several federal grants.
Well Prepared Graduates
- Thousands of local physicians, attorneys, engineers, teachers, computer science/information-technology staff, and other professionals are among UMBC alumni. The National Security Agency, for example, employs over 500 UMBC math, computer science, and language graduates.
- UMBC is one of the largest producers each year of undergraduate IT degrees in the nation and contributes significantly to the numbers of computer science and information systems graduates in Maryland. The campus will continue producing large numbers of graduates in these and other areas responsive to Maryland's workforce needs. One of the most critical factors in relocation decisions by companies is the quality and supply of the workforce.
- In recent years, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ranked UMBC 1st nationally in the total number of undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry degrees awarded to African Americans, 2nd in the total number of undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biochemistry awarded to minorities, and 3rd in chemistry and biochemistry master's degrees awarded to minority students.
- UMBC graduates also contribute to the local economy through business start-ups and by working in local entrepreneurial ventures.
UMBC's ability to attract and retain high-achieving students is especially significant because our tuition is among the highest in the System. We find that large numbers of our students receiving merit scholarships also have financial need, and that these awards respond in part to meeting that financial need. Not only are we investing in academic achievement, but we also are increasing our budgeted institutional need-based aid to minimize the impact of tuition increases for our neediest students.
Many of our undergraduates are Maryland residents who receive need-based support through the Maryland State Scholarship programs. Through a combination of sources -- State, federal, and institutional -- UMBC is committed to providing access for our students by making both merit- and need-based awards, in addition to providing private-donor supported funds that support internships.
Most important, we are now attracting Maryland students who, arguably, five years ago might have matriculated out of state. Our students and their parents are discerning consumers and expect a high level of quality for their educational investment. They know that UMBC was named a "Hot School" by the 2003 Kaplan/Newsweek "How to Get Into College" guide and was the only Maryland university rated a "Best Value" by Kaplan/Newsweek 2001 College Catalog.
Our enrollments have increased substantially and are seriously taxing campus resources. UMBC has achieved the level of excellence parents and students expect despite having a substantially lower level of General Fund support per student than other campuses in the System and our peers.Faculty
UMBC has approximately 480 State-supported full-time faculty who teach and conduct research, 200 full-time research faculty funded from contracts and grants, and 250 part-time faculty. They are dedicated to their students and their work and are accountable through a rigorous process of review for promotion and tenure. Because of UMBC's heavy emphasis on hands-on experiences for students, our faculty work to connect their own research and teaching with students' interests, leading to substantive faculty-student interaction in labs or to student internships.
Another measure of the quality of our faculty is their impressive per capita ranking for such major awards as Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, comparing favorably with the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. (Figure 5) In fact, UMBC had two Fulbright Fellows in 2003 in addition to the 2003 recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Mentor Award, two of the nation's 18 NSF Career Award winners in mathematics, an Optical Society of America Fellow, and Maryland's 2002 Chemist of the Year.
Faculty Awards
As State support for higher education has fluctuated over the years, due chiefly to changes in the economy, faculty hiring has fluctuated and has not always been responsive to enrollment increases, new programs, and institutional plans and aspirations. The size and quality of UMBC's faculty will largely determine for many years our level of success as a research university. UMBC must continue to hire outstanding faculty to meet our growing enrollment, replace retiring faculty, and to replace faculty we lose to other universities and corporations with whom we compete intensely.It is important not only to build our faculty complement, but also to retain faculty by providing the necessary support structure for research and teaching as well as competitive salaries. Our faculty drive the campus's research enterprise, attracting grants and contracts, producing technology transfer, and generating research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Retaining faculty is important also because of the costs associated with replacing them.
RESEARCHUMBC both anticipates and helps to shape the future by producing new knowledge through faculty research -- either individually or through partnerships with corporations or public agencies. As previously noted, UMBC is ranked by the Carnegie Foundation in the top tier of American universities and is one of the leading recipients of federal funding in science and engineering.
Selected Key Research Centers and Laboratories
The GEST (Goddard Earth Sciences & Technology) Center
was created in 2000 when the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) awarded a Cooperative Agreement to UMBC to create a center of excellence in earth sciences. UMBC and its partners -- Hampton University, Howard University, Caelum Research Corporation, and Northrop Grumman Corporation – are engaged in collaborative research programs, and the Center exists under a five-year, renewable award with GSFC. This government-university-industry consortium is expected not only to provide a "home" for earth scientists, but synergistically to foster new directions in research and technology.The Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) operates under a 1995 cooperative agreement between UMBC and GSFC and works to develop new technology for environmental remote sensing. JCET now includes 25 research professors, 12 research scientists, and three research associates. Its research foci include atmospheric radiation, observations, clouds and precipitation, and interdisciplinary studies. JCET faculty are fully integrated into the academic life of the university, teaching courses and advising students in Physics, Geography, Mathematics/Statistics, and Computer Science/Electrical Engineering.
The Joint Center for Astrophysics is a cooperative venture between UMBC and GSFC’s Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Center activities of the Astrophysics Center include research in high-energy astrophysics, developing educational opportunities in astronomy for UMBC students, and participation in outreach educational activities to the university and the surrounding community.
The Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR) fosters advanced photonics research and technology development in the areas of optical communications, optical sensing and devices, and quantum optics. Initial resources for CASPR were provided by NASA, which enlisted UMBC faculty and graduate photonics students. We expect the Center to evolve into a long-term focus for photonics research in the Baltimore-Washington area.
The Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) conducts research on the environmental, economic, and social consequences of the urban landscape’s transformation. It convenes conferences and symposia, supports university teaching programs, and assists in K-12 education. The Center was created with initial support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Center for Aging Studies is a hub for faculty, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral research activities on the policy and sociocultural dimensions of aging in the U.S. The Center is the administrative and intellectual home for currently funded research (exceeding $5 million) on such topics as long-term care quality, consumer direction, physician/older patient interactions and practice, among others. Working with the doctoral program in Gerontology at the University of Maryland Graduate School, Baltimore, the Center has greatly increased the contributions and visibility of UMBC faculty and students on aging-related issues of State and national importance.
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION, TRAINING AND SERVICE
In keeping with its mission, UMBC serves as a center of professional development, working with agencies and business and industry in the Baltimore-Washington region. Some of our major partners include school systems in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, and Montgomery Counties, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, and Maryland's Department of Business & Economic Development and the National Security Agency.
We are especially committed to the development of urban education and K-16 initiatives. The Urban Teacher Education (UTE), for example, is dedicated to preparing master's-level teachers to be successful in some of the region's lowest performing, most underserved schools. Other examples include our partnership with the Anne Arundel County Public Schools to provide professional development programs for more than 90 teachers in mathematics, science, and English, and the work of our Center for Art and Visual Culture, which is collaborating with area schools to strengthen arts education for K-16 students. We also are working with Montgomery County Public Schools to build on the concept of an early college in the humanities for high-achieving students enrolled in the County's most challenging schools, and to develop a bilingual/ESOL and intercultural communication certificate to be delivered to veteran teachers and social service professionals there.
UMBC's Center for Health Program Development & Management (CHPDM) is a multi-faceted health services research organization. Under contract with Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), the Center has become nationally recognized for its work in helping Maryland control the costs and improve the quality of healthcare in the State. The Center works with DHMH and other public and private organizations in developing and evaluating healthcare programs and policies.
UMBC's nationally recognized Shriver Center continues to provide applied experiences each year for approximately 1,000 students through internships, co-ps, and community service positions at 500 organizations in the U.S. and abroad. The Center has attracted over $5million this year in grants and contracts from national and State agencies and foundations, and is serving more than 1,000 youth through its nationally acclaimed Choice Program and NSF-funded Teaching Enhancement Partnership Project.
back to top
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
UMBC is a model university for developing partnerships focusing on technology development. Our faculty and students work actively with business, industry, and government, in combining our public responsibility with our technical expertise.
UMBC's technology center, techcenter@UMBC, includes five buildings located on 30 acres and houses approximately 170,000 square feet of research, office, and conference facilities. Located on I-95 just minutes from BWI Airport and within view of thousands of north- and southbound travelers daily, the facility (UMBC's South Campus) is ninety-percent leased and houses 26 early-stage technology companies (14 biotech and 12 IT and engineering-related) employing over 200 workers. The General Assembly, State Department of Business & Economic Development, and Baltimore County all strongly supported UMBC's efforts to acquire these facilities, which are an excellent example of UMBC's collaboration with business and government in the interest of economic development and enhancing the region's quality of life.
The UMBC Business Incubator for small, brand-new biotech and IT companies also is housed in techcenter@UMBC. While working to become mature businesses, these incubator companies benefit from a variety of university resources, including low-cost office/lab space, shared administrative services, access to UMBC's library and computing resources, access to faculty expertise, and availability of business, legal, marketing, and technical advice. (Some of our incubating companies are described in the attachment.)
The techcenter@UMBC and incubator programs are self-supporting enterprises, fostering economic development in our community. They are by-products of the investments we have made to attract productive research faculty and build a strong research infrastructure.
RWD Technologies became the anchor tenant in bwtech@umbc, UMBC's research park, locating its Applied Technology Laboratory (ATL) in a three-story, 60,000 square-foot facility in the park. RWD now has a staff of 250 working there. We are currently developing a second 60,000 square-foot multi-tenant building and negotiating with prospective tenant companies focused on IT and biotech research and development. This second major facility will be ready for occupancy in July, 2004. The research park, working with RWD and tenants in the new facility, will encourage technology development and transfer, collaborative research-and-development and training, and new employment opportunities for students and graduates.
UMBC continues pursuing strategies for commercializing faculty inventions and technology transfer that are designed to contribute to economic development and garner new resources for the campus, in addition to supporting local companies. Increased emphasis on identifying the applied uses of faculty research and on faculty collaboration with industry has resulted in increased invention disclosures. In fact, The Business Gazette recently reported that UMBC "fared better than the industry standard, receiving one invention disclosure for $1.45 million of research" (January 9, 2004). Also, our success with our licensing efforts has resulted in doubling UMBC's licensing revenue over the past two years. (See attached information on Maryland-based start-up companies involving UMBC technology or faculty.)
PRIVATE GIVINGI am delighted to report that our fundraising efforts continue to be highly successful. In fact, since completing our first-ever capital campaign less than two years ago, raising $66 million (and surpassing our five-year, $50-million goal by nearly a third), we enjoyed our best fundraising year ever this past year ($14 million) despite a sagging economy. And this year, even with several months still to go, we are already well on our way to having our second most productive fundraising year. Major gifts by corporations, foundations, alumni, faculty, and staff both during the campaign and since its completion have built endowment support (Figure 6) for student scholarships, faculty research, endowed professorships, faculty and staff development, and other programmatic initiatives ranging from the sciences and engineering to teacher preparation, the arts, and community service.
Endowments
Because Maryland, unlike other states (e.g., Virginia, North Carolina, California), has not enjoyed a long tradition of private giving to public institutions, we have worked especially hard to surpass our goals. (In fact, before 1990, the campus had never raised a million dollars in any year.) The public now readily sees the difference that private giving and endowment make, and it takes pride in our privately supported achievements. Top-flight programmatic initiatives led by renowned faculty and superb staff attract donors.
IMPACT OF BUDGET CUTSUMBC continues to cope with the impact of major cuts in General Fund support made during the past two years. In managing these reductions, including millions of dollars in operating expenses and administrative personnel (25 layoffs and 65 positions eliminated), our guiding principle has been to take actions that would have the least impact on students, protect the quality of academic and research programs as much as possible, and minimize hardship on our faculty and staff.
The impact of the cuts has been exacerbated by the fact that our enrollments have grown, including increased numbers of students residing on campus, and the fact that our research activities and related federal regulations have increased. Most important, we have gone to great lengths to be responsive to our growing student body, working especially to provide access to course sections and maintain library and computer laboratory hours. The following examples highlight how the campus has been adversely affected by the cuts.
- We have slowed hiring of additional full-time faculty to replace those who are leaving and have had to respond to enrollment growth by hiring part-time faculty, thus lowering the percentage of undergraduate courses taught by core faculty. Having fewer core faculty lines has also slowed growth of contract and grant revenue.
- Because of position eliminations and layoffs, we are serving larger numbers of students with fewer staff. This situation is exacerbated by a troublesome trend of both faculty and administrators being recruited not only by much larger public universities and better endowed private institutions, but also by business and industry and public agencies. In fact, we have recently lost a number of faculty to other major research universities (e.g., Purdue, Penn State, University of Florida). We also have lost several key administrators to other institutions (e.g., Penn State, Johns Hopkins) offering salaries as much as 50 percent higher. Attrition is not limited to senior personnel. We also are coping with significant staff turnover in Public Safety, Financial Services/Accounting, and Physical Plant. Because our national reputation is growing, we find ourselves ìripe for the picking.î Moreover, we have found that the costs of retaining faculty and staff are less than those of replacing them, given the expenses of searches, new staff training, and start-up costs for new faculty.
- We have held our budget for library materials constant for three years, despite journal price increases and substantial growth in our graduate programs. Our most recent Middle States accreditation report strongly recommended that we give additional support to the library.
- Our operating budget for facilities renewal has been reduced from $1 million annually to only $100,000 to cover 70 buildings, virtually eliminating preventive maintenance and greatly slowing renovation of existing buildings. The conversion, for example, of our former University Center to a one-stop student services center is now being spread over eight years.
- Staff reductions make it more difficult to meet audit requirements and growing State and federal mandates, e.g., implementation of SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System), which has possible homeland security implications, and HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
- Implementation of new PeopleSoft administrative systems has been slowed and complicated by cuts, delaying essential improvements in administrative services.
Support for the Bioinformatics Center has been cut, halting development of a new research activity with major potential for regional economic development. We also have frozen plans for two new graduate programs that would surely contribute to biotech business development.
Positions lost in Institutional Advancement seriously hamper our ability to prepare for our next capital campaign, which is more important now than ever.
SUMMARY OF FY 2005 BUDGET REQUESTOperating Budget
UMBC's FY 2005 budget request of $304.5 million reflects an increase of $11.5 million (3.9%), which includes an increase of $7.3 million in unrestricted funds and $4.2 million in restricted funds. The change in unrestricted funds is due primarily to an increase in tuition revenue of $6.2 million (8.6%). The tuition revenue is generated by a budgeted enrollment of 9,300 FTE students and reflects a 10% undergraduate and 6.5% graduate rate increase over FY 2004. Auxiliary revenue increases $1.1 million (2.3%), in part through direct sales by various units, and by fee increases identified in the tuition and fee schedule. Resources will be allocated to expand summer and winter course offerings, and to continue enhancing student life outside the classroom. Restricted revenue increases 4.6% as the result of continued growth in grants and contracts.
Without additional funding through State appropriations, continued sacrifices are required to meet such mandatory expenses as fringe benefit inflation, higher utility costs, financial aid responsive to increased tuition, and operating two new state-of-the-art educational facilities. Also, the campus will address high-priority initiatives related to the undergraduate experience, which are part of UMBC's strategic plan. Although new position requests were eliminated by the Department of Budget & Management, UMBC allocated funds to cover part-time faculty expenses to meet increased enrollment demands, to offer seminars, to provide undergraduate research and service opportunities, and to provide other support for first- and second-year students. To ensure student success, resources will be allocated for academic and student support services, particularly advisement.
Capital Budget
The Governor's proposed FY 2005 capital budget for UMBC includes one item: South Wing renovation of the Chemistry Building. The funds will provide for completion of the building's renovation, which has received matching federal support from the National Institutes of Health. (It should be noted that earlier phases of this project received the 2003 Project Leadership Award from the Construction Owners Association of America. The award recognizes exceptionally strong leadership in project management.)
RESPONSE TO LEGISLATIVE ANALYST’S COMMENTS ON UMBCFiscal 2004 Actions: Impact of Cost Containment
The President should comment on the impact of constraining education and general expenditure growth to 5.6% since fiscal 2002.Campus Response:
The impact of constraining education and general expenditure growth to 5.6% since FY 2002 has been substantial. Please see detailed discussion of this issue in the section entitled, "Impact of Budget Cuts."
Issues
Instruction Share of Personnel Grows Since 2002, Outperforms USM Average
The President should comment on the effect cost containment has had on personnel levels.
Campus Response:
Please see detailed discussion of this issue in the section entitled, "Impact of Budget Cuts."Faculty Salaries Rank in Middle Percentiles
DLS recommends that the President comment on the competitiveness of the institution's salary levels.Campus Response:
UMBC competes nationally for outstanding faculty, and faculty members are already leaving UMBC for positions at other universities. The absence of salary increases the past two years has had the impact of dropping UMBC's competitive salary ranking among its peers from the mid-80th percentile range of a few years ago to that described in the Analyst's report. We are clearly seeing an adverse impact on our ability to retain and attract faculty.As an example, this past year, we lost three prominent full professors: one was the Director of one of our doctoral programs in Psychology and had mentored many students; another was the past Director of the same doctoral program; and the third, from Education, had an impressive record of attracting federal grants to UMBC and had just received an award form the Board of Regents for her public service. Currently, we are working hard to retain faculty members who are being recruited by Brown University, the University of Illinois, Villanova University, and Holy Cross College.
Finally, the issue of faculty salaries and our decline in rank relative to our peers has become an issue that faculty leaders and department chairs continue to discuss with us as part of our shared governance process. It is a significant obstacle to maintaining a high level of morale among faculty. Similar problems are encountered with staff recruitment and retention as local employers, especially private research universities in the Baltimore-Washington region, are able to recruit our staff, especially those technically skilled, with the promise of significantly higher salaries.
Faculty Workload at Low End of Regents' Standard
The President should comment on the steps the institution is taking to increase faculty workload.
Campus Response:
UMBC seeks to increase its institutional average faculty teaching load (course units) by re-evaluating the numbers and types of exceptions to the standard workload that are granted in accordance with USM policy -- with the goal of reducing the number of exceptions. We also are reviewing departmental workload policies to ensure that they are current and being fully implemented. We also will annually review teaching assignments to identify those faculty members who could be teaching more (course units). We examine class size limits each semester to determine if class size can be increased (without sacrificing the quality of instruction) in order to increase the number of students (and credit hours, another measure of teaching load) each faculty member teaches.The use of only one measure (teaching load) to evaluate faculty workload can be misleading. There are several situations in which very productive faculty members may have a reduced teaching load.
- The faculty member has an externally funded research project that will pay the university back while the faculty member spends additional time on research.
The faculty member is spending extra time on other instructional activities.
- The faculty member is spending additional time on professional development (e.g., a prestigious fellowship leave or sabbatical leave).
- The faculty member is making an extraordinary service contribution (e.g., directing a special scholars program, directing an academic program, or serving as President of the Faculty Senate).
- In limited cases, faculty members may be unable to teach their full loads because they are on sick leave or family leave.
Some of these exceptions, especially those pertaining to research and professional development (and identified in the USM policy), are extremely important for maintaining faculty members' expertise and the quality of our academic programs. It is possible that some of the exceptions could be reduced if the university had resources for higher levels of staff support.
We estimate that teaching represents approximately half of the expected workload of core faculty members in USM research universities. Instructional workload includes not only time spent in classroom teaching, but also time spent in the following activities:
- designing the course content, structure, and schedule;
- preparing lectures, course assignments, and examinations;
- grading course assignments and examinations;
- reviewing and providing feedback on students' written, computational, or creative work;
- meeting with students during office hours and at other times;
- mentoring students individually on their research projects or independent studies.
We require all faculty not only to teach, but also to stay current in their fields and to advance and contribute to their fields by conducting research and, in many fields, attracting grants that are competitively awarded through peer review. The expectation of funded research is being applied more rigorously in reviews for promotion and tenure and post-tenure review, thereby motivating faculty to increase their productivity in this area.
Given the highly competitive climate in which research universities operate, we are concerned that arbitrarily increasing the teaching load of core faculty beyond the national average for research universities would make it even more difficult to prevent faculty attrition and to attract outstanding faculty.
Also, it is both very inefficient and costly to hire faculty, lose them, and then have to begin the process all over again. It is time-consuming and costly to recruit faculty. The process adds to the workload of other faculty members while the position remains vacant, and there are often additional one-time start up costs when a new core faculty member is hired.
AttachmentMaryland-Based Start-Up Companies Involving UMBC Technology or Faculty
Agnik, LLC
UMBC computer scientist, Hillol Kargupta, created a consulting company that is developing a mobile data mining technology, which was originally developed in Professor Kargupta's lab at UMBC. UMBC hopes to begin negotiations for a license agreement to a jointly owned patent application. Agnik is now located in the techcenter@UMBC.Fluorometrix Corporation
Fluorometrix was founded in part by Professor Govind Rao, Chair of UMBC's Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. The company recently relocated part of its operations to Maryland and received a Maryland Technology Development Fund award from TEDCO. The company is developing microbioreactors and other related products. We have three licenses with Fluorometrix.Scientific Products & Systems (SP&S)
SP&S was founded to commercialize technology developed in collaboration between a private entrepreneur and a faculty member in UMBC's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Muniswamap Anjanappa. The company is currently located in the Technology Center and has recently made its first sale of a product. UMBC currently has one licenses agreement with SP&S and anticipates entering into a second license agreement for additional technologies that were developed under the continuing collaboration.Aurora Analytics, LLC
UMBC is currently pursuing the formation of Aurora Analytics, which will develop a food sensor technology owned by UMBC. The company will also provide analytical services for Columbia Technologies, an environmental services firm, and other companies located in the Technology Center.
Navigation: Home / AboutUMBC / Welcome / testimony2004 / index.html
Copyright © 2008 The University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle Baltimore, MD 21250
phone: 410-455-1000 email: help@umbc.edu
