Durbin said the budget is meant to acclimate the Board of Trustees to the university’s priorities, but serves as a “status quo placeholder” this year, since we are on the verge of implementing a strategic plan. The two priorities are to be stable and predictable so we can start the work on that plan.

The proposed budget entails $23.8 million of costs, including a 2% salary increase. Durbin noted that this current year’s budget had $20 million of costs supported by one-time items, which is unsustainable.

“This budget is based on some assumptions, including the assumption that enrollment stays stable. If enrollment stays stable, we’re in good shape,” Durbin said.

There are tuition and fee increases requested to fund some priorities. The proposed face-to-face tuition increase is 2.5% for undergraduates, while the online learning fees have been restructured to match the current per-hour rate plus a $50 tech fee.

“We have been careful not to price ourselves out of the market,” Durbin said, showing a slide of our tuition, which remains lower than the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. Our proposed rates for the 2020 budget are also lower than UK’s proposed rates, including out-of-state, which is 2.5% at UofL compared to 6.2% at UK.

“We don’t think these fee increases place us at a competitive disadvantage,” Durbin said.

Durbin also noted that 62% of all beds will cost less in 2020 versus 2019, so housing costs will also be lower.

He also discussed the foundation’s spending policy and how it is expected to impact the university. The foundation had to rein in some spending this year to ensure the endowment funds stayed intact and were positioned to grow.

“We looked at every line of the budget. We will have some pain this year, but in the longer term, we will be good,” he said. “We think of this year as a re-set,” Durbin said. “In our current state – with stable enrollment and adjustments and tuition and fees – we have a balanced budget.”

Durbin’s full presentation is .

President Neeli Bendapudi also provided an update for the senate, stating that she feels better about the budget than she did three months ago.

Still, administrators did recently discover the $20 million base budget covered by one-time dollars and had to make significant adjustments accordingly. One of those adjustments was in closing the Humana Gym. Doing this, Bendapudi said, saves UofL about $1 million a year.

Bendapudi apologized to the Faculty Senate for the way the administrators handled the decision-making and communication around the gym’s closing.

“I sincerely believe this decision was the right thing for the university. But we failed during the process. I will own that and I promise it will not happen again,” she said. “We’re learning. We’ll do better.”

Bendapudi plans to host a retreat this summer with her senior leadership team to discuss a new rubric for these types of decisions, including who provides input, who approves and how to communicate.

Keith Sherman, executive director of the UofL Foundation, which owns the Humana Gym building, added there was no easy fix to this issue.

“The facility was well under water, so it became a question of how we stop the bleeding as quickly as possible,” he said.

After going through each line of the budget, administrators have also discovered that the same dollars were promised to multiple deans.

“We don’t want this to happen again. We want a budget committee to be actively engaged and for every single person on our campus to be able to pull up our budget and understand it,” Bendapudi said.

Bendapudi provided an update from the CPE, encouraging all faculty members to be mindful of our performance funding model.

“The best thing we can do is make sure our students succeed. It’s the morally, ethically and financially right thing to do,” she said. “What we’re hoping is that no student graduates without an internship, co-op or student learning/experiential opportunity. That gives them the best chances.”

Bendapudi also briefly discussed the recent Passport deal, stating that she is confident it was the best outcome for the university and for the community. Because of non-disclosure agreements, she is still not able to talk much about the negotiations surrounding Jewish Hospital.��She ended, however, by stating that she feels comfortable and confident.

Provost Beth Boehm also provided an update, noting that Vice Provost Mordean Taylor-Archer is retiring. Her areas include international and diversity. Diversity will be moved under the president’s office, and an open call for applications will be held for the diversity position with a short timeline.��Boehm admitted that our culture needs to be improved so we stop losing faculty of color.

“We have to work on our environment so people don’t even look for jobs elsewhere,” she said.

Meanwhile, the international office will be under the provost’s office.��

Michael Mardis, dean of students, has agreed to take on the international office in the interim and will work to figure out what that office will look like moving forward.

. The next Faculty Senate meeting is July 3 in Chao Auditorium.

Chair John Smith opened the meeting by explaining why he voted in favor of Bendapudi’s raise.

“I’ve been vocal about not giving raises to administrators because of the affect it has on our morale, having not gotten raises in quite some time. Two things made Neeli’s situation different for me,” he said.

First, when she was first hired a year ago, the Board intentionally made a low offer under the conditions that her pay would be adjusted to a higher level – proposed last week – if she was able to restore ethical behavior and integrity to the university.

“I thought it would be hypocritical for us not to do what we said we were going to do,” Smith said. “Second, she told us before the board meeting that if she received the raise she was going to donate it. Those two things made this situation different for me.

“I also thought it would send a strong message to state legislators, donors, potential new corporate partners and from a gender equity standpoint if we brought up her salary, which was in the bottom 5% when we hired her.”

Bendapudi then took the floor to answer a number of questions from senators, most of whom were concerned about the Humana Gym closing without warning. The president said she wants the university to get to a point where employees can expect consistent and predictable raises. In doing so, administrators began an exercise a few months ago that examined every line in the budget.

“As we looked at every line of our spending, we found that this gym cost about $1.05 million to operate annually and is used by about 335 members. That equates to about $250 per month per member,” she said.�� “I can see how much this decision would hurt those who were a part of that. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was a very expensive thing to maintain for 335 members.”

Bendapudi said the decision was not made without a trade off – GHN members can join Planet Fitness for the same cost ($15 a month) with no other changes to their GHN program – wellness coaching and the $40 discount continue.

“In order for us to get to an annual 2% raise, we have to make tough decisions,” she said. “Please believe me when I say we are trying to do the right thing.” 

Bendapudi predicts that 2% raise will happen in January 2020 and then hopes it can be annual by the summer of 2021.

Senators expressed discontentment about the gym decision not including shared governance input. Bendapudi ensured them that research was done but said she will work to use the Staff Senate as a resource and a partner for future decisions.

“That’s on me,” she said. “If you look at the gym benefits from Planet Fitness, it’s important to communicate that they are increasing, not decreasing. I have to look at anything that is only benefiting a small percentage of our employees.”

A senator asked why the fees are higher at the Student Recreation Center versus the Planet Fitness membership and Bendapudi noted that general student fees pay for the SRC.

“That is mandatory for students and we have a directive to not be cheaper for anyone else,” she said.

Bendapudi was asked if she has plans on what to do with the money donated from her raise. Her initial thoughts are to focus on mental health resources for students, but nothing has yet been solidified.

Finally, Bendapudi said she will consider communicating decisions to senators before any mass communication goes out to the entire campus in order to receive their feedback and solutions.

Todd Kneale, UofL’s director of total rewards, also provided the Staff Senate with updates to the shared leave policy. A discussion ensued about some of those updates – for example the definition of “catastrophic” and whether or not donations should be pooled or direct. After receiving input, Kneale said he will send another update to the senators at a later date.

He added that the compensation policy is also being updated for consistency and simplicity. He hopes to have that in place by July 1.

Nominations were submitted for chair (3 candidates), vice chair (3 candidates) and secretary/treasurer (2 candidates). Each candidate had 3 minutes to speak to the senate about why they wanted the position and why they were the best suited for such a role. Elections will be held during the June meeting.

Finally, Smith’s chair’s report notes that the Chick-fil-A opening on the HSC campus has been delayed and is now expected to be early August. .��

The next Staff Senate meeting is June 10 at 2:30 p.m. on the HSC campus.