Good News and (sorta) Bad News from UGA

Committees from the Georgia House and Senate will get together and come up with a final budget for Gov. Deal to sign, but these are some of the issues that are important for the University of Georgia.

The good news: things will be better financially for UGA next year.

The bad news: unfortunately, they will not improve enough to provide raises to faculty and staff members, who haven’t seen their salaries increase in three years. And this bothers President Michael Adams. A lot. Because the university is losing some of its best people over pay issues.

The good news: the legislature did agree to allocate state money according to the funding formula, which gives dollars to state institutions based on credit hours., enrollment and maintenance. It didn’t do so last year, and UGA didn’t receive an expected $15 million.

The sort of bad news: this year’s payment will be about $7 million, since credit hours have dropped.

The good news: the General Assembly approved borrowing money for building a new “vet-med” teaching hospital for the College of Veterinary Medicine. The facility will be at the intersection of College Station and Barnett Shoals and will cost about $82 million, including $15 million in donations.

The good news: The legislature may have tinkered with the HOPE scholarship program, but they didn’t break it. It remains the richest scholarship program in America, says Adams, who doesn't favor means testing.

The bad news: HOPE is affected by outside economic issues--because these have an impact on lottery ticket sales. One factor is that people aren’t gassing up and then buying a lottery ticket— with prices so high, they don’t have anything left over for the lottery, Adams said. He is anxious to see what impact the changes have.

The bad news: The Board of Regents will likely vote to raise tuition.

The good news: Thanks to formula funding, the tuition increase won’t be as large as it might have been otherwise. Which is a big relief for Adams, who says he has requests for financial help from students and faculty daily.