University President William Powers continues to be optimistic about the Texas Legislature's commitment to higher education needs but says the University has some catching up to do in terms of legislative support.
Powers acknowledged that reports of an upcoming state budget surplus won't guarantee more support for the University.
"There will be competing uses of that, including property tax reduction. It is always more optimistic when there's money to be talked about rather than in 2003 when there was a clear shortfall," Powers said.
The last legislative session left the University with a minimal 1.9 percent budget increase. State funding has not kept pace with inflation for the past several years. Securing state funding has been a challenge for Powers, and former University President Larry Faulkner cited difficulty with the legislative process as one of the main reasons for his resignation.
Powers rejected speculation by some lawmakers that no amount of state support would be enough for university leaders.
"It is absolutely true that we've got to be accountable for how we use that money - that we're using it for things that add courses, reduce student-faculty ratios, keep our structures up and add advising," Powers said. "The Legislature ought to hold us accountable."
Out of the 12 most prestigious public universities in the U.S., UT ranks seventh in both tuition prices and state appropriations per student, according to "A Report on Tuition at UT Austin."
Of UT's 2007-2008 operating budget, 17 percent, or $322 million, came from the state Legislature. Twenty-four percent of UT's operating budget came from tuition charges. During the same period, Texas A&M received more than 25 percent of its operating budget from the Legislature and about 17 from tuition.
Powers testified in front of the Senate's Subcommittee on Higher Education for nearly two and a half hours on June 25.
"I think the biggest sort of optimism is that there is a real sense the Legislature is asking extremely helpful and insightful questions about ways to better fund higher education," he said.
Participants in the hearing, including other Texas university presidents, discussed the overall level as well as the structure of funding for higher education. Powers said that when compared to the most prestigious public universities in the U.S., UT ranks near the top in quality but lags in state funding.
"When compared to our competitors like Berkeley and UCLA, Michigan, North Carolina, we are not funded at the level they are," Powers said. "I think there is a recognition of that. There was a discussion of how tuition fits into that."
Powers said the current funding formula for state universities is not well-designed to fund or develop research. He said the competitive knowledge fund introduced in the Legislature during its last session was a positive, if small, step.
Most state appropriations for higher education come through a formula based on numbers of semester credit hours taken at each university, weighted according to their academic discipline and course level.
An institution's share of state funding corresponds roughly to its share of total weighted semester credit hours for the state, said Warren von Eschenbach, director of the senate subcommittee and legislative aide to Sen. Judith Zaffirini.
"UT-Austin has some issues with the formula because its enrollment isn't growing," von Eschenbach said. "Even though it has the largest share of formula funding, its share is decreasing relative to everyone else."
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst gave the subcommittee an interim charge to study tuition deregulation, funding of research institutions and financial aid as well as formula funding of higher education, before the next session begins in January 2009.
The Senate subcommittees on higher education and higher education finance will hold a joint hearing July 23 to discuss commercialization of research at public universities and funding of community colleges.
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