The general fund budget is $515.3 million, while the all-funds budget including grants and contracts, clinical and athletics revenue, and other revenues and expenses, is $1.23 billion.

Development of the budget centered on three objectives: providing a stable and predictable financial base, serving as a bridge to the forthcoming university strategic plan, and focusing on inflationary and critical financial needs,

Budget highlights include:

• A 2.4% increase in full-time resident undergraduate tuition. The $272/year increase includes $24 in SGA-endorsed hikes to the student activity, student services and Student Activities Center fees. Those fees will help fund student events and activities, additional student counseling positions and services, and improvements to access and services for student groups.
• A 2.5% increase in graduate, professional and non-resident tuition.
• An additional $1.3 million for student financial aid and enrollment support.
• A 2% salary increase for faculty and staff, to be effective Jan. 1. The salary enhancement will be funded by the tuition increase.

The board appointed Brad Shafer vice president for university advancement. Shafer, who holds a juris doctorate from Creighton University School of Law, has served as interim vice president since summer 2018.

The board also formalized the appointment of Rehan Khan as vice provost and chief information officer. Khan earned his MBA at Rivier University.

The board also approved the appointment of Teresa Reed as dean of the School of Music and the continuations of Toni Ganzel and Craig Blakely as deans of the schools of Medicine and of Public Health and Information Sciences, respectively.

Reed, who holds a PhD from Indiana University, previously served as associate dean of the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tulsa.

Ganzel has served in several roles since arriving at the UofL Division of Otolaryngology in 1983. She has served as dean since 2013. Blakely served as dean, School of Rural Public Health, at the Texas A&M Health Science Center before taking the reins at UofL in 2013.

In other action, the board heard a presentation on UofL’s finances, which included a recommendation that UofL increase tuition by 2.5% for the 2019-20 year. The board also heard a brief presentation on a new internship program that will provide opportunities for 40 UofL students to work with the executive branch of state government, with intent to grow the program to more than 200 in coming years. UofL already has a highly successful internship program with the General Assembly.

Also at the meeting, the board:

• Approved creation of a certificate in distilled business spirits (see ).
• Approved creation of the Center for Archeology and Cultural Heritage (CACHe). Located in the new UofL Fine Arts Institute on Rowan Street, the CACHe will serve as home to archaeology labs and collections and participating Anthropology Department faculty.
• Approved the naming of the softball field at Ulmer Stadium after Don Dobina. A former Cardinal football player and well-known supporter of UofL softball, Dobina was president and CEO of MPC Promotions. He also was founder and president of the nationally recognized Louisville Lady Sluggers Softball Club.
• Approved renaming Cardinal Arena to L&N Federal Credit Union Arena. Cardinal Arena houses the offices, training and competition facilities for the Cardinals’ volleyball team. L&N recently donated $2 million to the athletic department, in addition to previous donations of $160,000.

The budget includes $14 million for student-based initiatives, including $5 million for student recruitment, $5 million for student success and retention initiatives and almost $4 million for additional financial aid.

In-state undergraduate students will see a 3.5-percent tuition and fee increase, to $11,460 per year, which includes a 50-percent cut in the student athletics fee, from $50 to $25 per semester. In-state graduate students will experience a 3.6-percent increase, to $12,684.

UofL President Neeli Bendapudi stressed that officials worked to keep increases low and to direct additional funding to services and programs that benefit students.

The university also will experience a 5-percent cut to its general fund budget, which equates to a 1.7-percent cut to its overall budget. Deans, vice presidents and other campus leaders will determine how to make the cuts in their units.

“This budget is not ideal, but we have to work with the financial resources we have,” Bendapudi said. “We are focused on protecting and improving the education and the university experience for all our students.”��

UofL continues to deal with diminishing state funding, a huge budget deficit created by a previous administration and a push from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to improve its liquidity, or cash on hand.��The state appropriation for UofL dropped 5 percent, from $132.8 million to $126.7 million.

“I ask for your patience and support as we make changes to strengthen the university while dealing with our fiscal reality,” Bendapudi said in a recent note to faculty and staff.��Calling the current budget a “short-term fix,” she promised that long-term solutions will be developed with the students’ best interests in mind.��

The budget, which includes a 4-percent tuition increase for in-state students and a 5-percent campus-wide budget cut, will be presented for final approval to the full Board of Trustees June 20.����The tuition increase is partially offset by a 50 percent reduction in the Student Athletics Fee. As a result, the tuition and fee increase for students will amount to about 3.5 percent.

“This budget is not ideal, but we have to work with the financial resources we have,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “We are focused on protecting and improving the education and the university experience for all our students.”��

Interim CFO Susan Howarth told the committee that UofL continues to deal with diminishing state funding, a huge budget deficit created by a previous administration and a push from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to improve its liquidity, or cash on hand.��

“I ask for your patience and support as we make changes to strengthen the university while dealing with our fiscal reality,” Bendapudi wrote last week to faculty and staff.�� Calling the current budget a “short-term fix,” she promised that long-term solutions will be developed with the students’ best interests in mind.��

“While the challenges we face are significant, I am confident we are more than up to the task,” she said. “And I am confident that, as a team, we will work through this issue and come out an even greater university.”��

Budget highlights include:��

• $14 million for student-based initiatives, including $5 million for student recruitment, $5 million for student success and retention and almost $4 million for financial aid��
• A drop in state appropriation from $132.8 million to $126.1 million
• A 4-percent tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students. Tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergrads will rise to $5,730 per semester
• A 50-percent decrease in the mandatory student athletics fee, from $50 to $25 per semester, reducing the total increase in student costs to 3.5 percent
• A 5-percent across-the-board cut in the university’s budget. Bendapudi said each unit head will decide how to produce the 5-percent cut��

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The $1.238 billion budget includes $512 million in general funds, which support most of the university’s instructional and operational activities. Those funds come primarily from tuition and fees and from state appropriations. Non-general funds, primarily produced through affiliated corporations such as the UofL Research Foundation, the UofL Athletic Association and the UofL Foundation, will total about $726 million.

The budget addresses four priorities:

• Resolving a structural imbalance in the operating budget. The budget emphasizes efficiency in administrative operations, trimming travel expenses and implementing a hiring “frost” to more closely scrutinize the need to refill vacant positions.
• Keeping college affordable. The budget keeps tuition flat for all students and increases overall financial aid by $1.3 million. It also includes $2.5 million for the Credit for Credits program, in which students who complete at least 30 hours in an academic year receive a $526 credit toward the next year’s tuition. Students in the program will pay less in 2017-18 than they did last year.
• Strategic allocations. Using a $12 million reallocation pool from a 3 percent across-the-board budget cut in the past year, the university will direct funding toward targeted areas including academic quality and student recruitment.
• Establishing a firm financial foundation for future years. The budget includes a revised forecast of revenues and expenses, as well as savings realized through administrative efficiencies and capture of vacant salary lines.

Postel noted that while the budget is tight, it will enable the university to continue moving forward.

Interim CFO Susan Howarth told the board that the university has taken actions to offset a projected $48 million shortfall in 2017-18. Those actions included reducing operational costs by $9 million to $10 million, realizing $10 million in efficiencies and economies of scale in the university’s procurement practices, saving $10 million through the hiring “frost” and using $17 million in one-time funds from the university’s partnership with KentuckyOne Health. The KentuckyOne funds will be replaced through operational efficiencies as a result of the transition of management of University Hospital and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center to University Medical Center.

Also at the meeting, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary ����ֱ�� President Robert King provided an orientation session on board membership. King stressed that trustees’ loyalties must lie with the institution rather than with any particular university leadership. He also weighed in on UofL’s current SACS probation, stating that he is “confident that all the things you’re doing … will take you off probation.”

In other action, the board approved:

• Creation of an ad hoc committee on tenure and nepotism policy
• Construction of a television production studio. Athletics will fund construction of the $8 million facility, which is required as part of UofL’s membership in the ACC
• A long-term ground lease and development of the Churchill Park property near the Lynn Soccer Stadium. The property will be used for soccer practice fields.
• A motion to empower Postel to negotiate terms of a revised Yum! Center lease with the Louisville Arena Authority.