ANN ARBOR—”No activity is more critical to our State’s future than the development of its human capital, and the State-supported university system, including the University of Michigan, is vital to that task,” said U-M President Lee C. Bollinger in submitting the University’s 1998-99 budget request to the State government.

“We recognize that there will be many competing demands for the State’s resources and difficult choices must be made,” he said, “but we urge our State officials to continue the recent tradition of enhanced support for universities.”

The University is requesting an increase of $17.1 million in State appropriation for the Ann Arbor campus in 1998-99.

For the past two years, Bollinger said, “we were gratified to receive an appropriations increase above the rate of inflation, which allowed us to hold tuition increases to 3 percent for 1996-97 and 2.9 percent for 1997-98, the lowest increases in 12 years.”

He reminded State officials that, for over a decade, the University has streamlined its administrative processes and, as a result, has reallocated more than $50 million from lower to higher priorities. “Our goal is to continue to streamline the administration so that even more of our resources can be used to support our teaching and research missions.”

The University’s long-range plans, Bollinger continued, call for “building strength and achieving balance.” “We must build in areas of lesser distinction while supporting our traditional strengths so that the University continues its tradition of leadership and distinction. Our success in achieving this goal will yield benefits not only for our students, but also for our State and for society at large.

“For a decade we have been pursuing a long-range strategy designed to strengthen the undergraduate experience at Michigan. Two important actions were the creation of undergraduate seminars and significant expansion of undergraduate research opportunities. Both programs increase the contact between undergraduates and faculty members in the classroom and, even more importantly, outside of it.

“We have gained national attention from these strategies, but the most important result is the affirmation by students and prospective students—and their parents—that a Michigan education is an investment of great value for them and their future. We see evidence of the effectiveness of these improvements in our continued high graduation rates, and in the increasing numbers of students seeking to enroll at U-M. Our freshman class this year number 5,534, the largest entering class ever, a record number of freshmen for the third year in a row.”

The University’s funding request for next year, Bollinger explained, has two components:

• A 4 percent increase, or a basic increase of $12.6 million, “combined with our own efforts to create flexible funds within our existing budget, will provide the base necessary to continue existing activities and to fund the most important new priorities.”

• “We are requesting funding of $1.5 million for the expansion of Undergraduate Learning Communities, which create opportunities for smaller community experiences within the larger University. And we are requesting $3 million for a Life Sciences Initiative, which will promote more activity in emerging interdisciplinary areas of education and research where there is tremendous student interest, plus striking scientific advances.”

Bollinger concluded, “We renew our pledge to serve as responsible stewards of all the resources entrusted to us; to strive simultaneously to improve the overall quality of our instructional, research, and service programs; and to provide those programs at the lowest feasible cost.”

The U-M Board of Regents, at its Nov. 20-21 meeting, approved the University’s budget request.

University of Michigan