University President William Powers sent out another "Letter from the President" e-mail Thursday to alumni, faculty and friends of the University as he ramps up for his second legislative session as president and continued mission to gather enough support to influence the Texas Legislature to increase funding for the University.
In the e-mail, which is the third in a series relating to higher education funding, the top 10 percent law and rising tuition, Powers cites Texas' low ranking among comparable states in terms of state funding for higher education.
"We cannot escape the fact that Texas spends less of its gross domestic product on education than other states," Powers said in the e-mail. He goes on to to express an understanding that state officials "are working hard to control state spending" but points to its percentage ranking as 35th out of 50 states in the nation with college-educated citizens.
Powers warned in his State of University Address in September 2007 that the University could face a $200 million deficit in six years - without tuition increases - if the state Legislature doesn't increase funding during the next session by a rate that will keep pace with inflation. The UT System Board of Regents cited Powers' experience in legislative relations as a former lawyer and dean of the law school as reasoning for his appointment to the position in February 2006.
His predecessor, Larry Faulkner, cited a disappointing legislative session for his departure and said in his final address to the University in 2005 that UT could not be a top-ranked institution without more funding. Powers said in his first e-mail that UT still has the potential to be the best public American university but that it cannot happen in the coming years because of funding issues.
In an interview with The Daily Texan last week, Powers said Texas is failing to fund higher education, citing Gov. Rick Perry's Higher Education Summit as an example of a lack of policy that supports education.
"The bottom line is that Texas is not funding higher education, and the governor's proposals did not address that," Powers said.
Powers said there was a perception in the proposals at the Higher Education Summit that faculty members are not working hard enough to justify spending more money to pay rising salaries. Increasing faculty salaries has been a priority on Powers' list since the beginning of his tenure.
Although Powers, by law, cannot seek to influence any legislation, he told readers in the second of the three e-mails he has sent relating to state funding that "we need to increase higher education capacity, and we need to fund excellence at the state's existing national research universities."
Student Government President Keshav Rajagopalan said state funding will be a major issue for students as well as the administration as the legislative session approaches.
Rajagopalan said that because UT increasingly relies on other funding sources , it is "looking more and more like a state-assisted institution."
Rajagopalan also said SG will advocate at the Capitol in conjunction with the administration when the issues are important to both.
"I feel that a unified voice between the administration, and students will carry a lot of weight at the Capitol," Rajagopalan said.
