Tennessee Tech Board Of Trustees approved a compensation plan Thursday for up to a 2 percent employee salary increase.
The exact amount of the increase will depend on enrollment for the fall, and will be based on the university’s evaluation process. Tech Senior Vice President Dr. Claire Stinson said the University facing a $6.3 million budget shortfall that will mean a tuition hike of 6.5 percent.
“It was my thought as I was going through this to say, there’s things we can cut out, like strategic investment, new programs,” Stinson said. “And this is just not true. If we’re going to move forward, those are the types of things that we do have to take into consideration and fund those things. A lot of those costs are costs that we can’t avoid. But I think that we have to look at this really look at our needs and think in terms of moving forward into the future.”
The university received less state funding than requested, leaving a significant gap between expected revenues and estimated cost increases for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission has not yet set the binding range for undergraduate tuition, but discussions have included an increase of up to 6.5 percent. A 6.5 percent increase would generate about $5.8 million in resources but would still fall short of covering the university’s total estimated costs.
The board approved a compensation plan that includes a 1.5 percent salary pool match recommended by the state. The university will fund an additional half percent if fall enrollment numbers provide enough resources to support the cost.
“At that point we will know what those fall enrollments are and whether the resources are available to support an additional half percent,” Stinson said.
The university requested $18 million for capital maintenance but received $4.2 million in the state budget, Stinson said. This funding will cover the first phase of utility infrastructure upgrades and the second phase of multi-building elevator upgrades.
Stinson said two proposed capital outlay projects for a life science building and a social sciences building were not funded.