University President

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

January 13, 2012 at 12:04 pm

TO: The University Community

RE: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

On Monday, January 16th, Nicholls State University will be closed in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. As each of us enjoys that day away from the routine of campus life, I encourage all members of the Nicholls family to consider closely the life, work and times of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Born in 1929, the son of a Baptist minister, with an earned education through that of a doctorate, Reverend King organized the African American Civil Rights movement and, in doing so, provided extraordinary leadership to seek change through non-violent civil disobedience.

With Reverend King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, his leadership and the lessons he taught us through his good works became part of American history. However, it is incumbent upon each of us to remember those lessons and to carry his work forward. That responsibility rests on us, not simply on the occasion of Reverend King’s official day of remembrance but at all times throughout the year.

By Website Manager | Posted in 2011 - 2012, 2012 - 2013 | Comments Off

Mid-Year Budget Cut

January 5, 2012 at 10:38 am

TO: Nicholls State University Faculty and Staff

FR: Stephen T. Hulbert, President

A few days before the Christmas holidays, the Louisiana Revenue Estimating Committee determined that there would be a revenue shortfall for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2012. The amount of the shortfall was determined to be approximately $251 million, or approximately 1% of the state general fund budget of $25 billion. The governor’s office and the state legislature addressed this shortfall with a combination of spending cuts and moving some unspent funds. The amount of the actual reduction was approximately $144 million or a little over ½ of 1% of the general fund.

Because most state funds are dedicated to specific areas, either constitutionally or legislatively, the largest cuts, as always, affect higher education and health care, the two unprotected areas funded under the general fund. It was determined that funding to health care would be reduced by about $25 million (about 18% of the overall cut) and $50 million would be cut from higher education (about 35% of the overall reduction). The remainder of the cuts was spread over the other state agencies.

The initial estimates from the division of administration were that health care would be cut about $101 million and higher education would be cut about $105 million. Through the efforts of the governor’s office and the legislature it was decided to use unspent funds from other areas to reduce the amount of the cuts to health care and higher education. Both health care and higher education are appreciative of the efforts to reduce the impact on their entities.

The overall cut to higher education is a little over 5% of state general funds rather than the initial estimates of over 10%! All of this is to be accomplished in the last half of the fiscal year.

The cut to Nicholls State was approximately $1.14 million or 5.1% of its state general fund of $22.3 million. With these new figures the state funding to Nicholls State since 2008 has decreased from $35.8 million to $22.3 million or about 38%. These funds include statutory dedication funding of about $1.1 million each year. With tuition going up about 10% a year, the self-generated funding (mostly tuition and fees) to Nicholls has increased over the same period from $20.8 million to $31.5 million (approximately 51%). This means the total funding has only decreased slightly from $56.6 million in 2008 to $53.8 million in 2012. However since the cost of insurance and retirement benefits have greatly increased (by approximately $3.3 million) over the same time frame, the “usable funds” have decreased by over $6.1 million. The percentage difference in state funding and self-generated funding has gone from 63% state and 37% self-generated in 2008 to 41% state and 59% self-generated in 2012 – reversing the primary funding to higher education from state funding to self-generated funding in just four years.

Nicholls administration has approached this latest reduction with the following parameters:

No layoffs – the faculty and staff have been reduced by about 100 persons over the last 4 years;
No furloughs – the faculty and staff have not seen pay increases for 4 years, and;
Protect the core of the institution (academics) as much as possible.

With these parameters in mind for the remainder of the fiscal year, the reduction will be handled by a freeze on positions, except for those critical to the core of the institution. There will be cuts to travel, supplies, student labor, the number of scholarships awarded, and operating services. Reductions will also include the budgets of those areas that receive funding from the state general fund such as athletics, the dyslexia center, and the women and government center by the same percentage reduction as the overall reduction to the university’s state general fund.

Because there was no time during the holidays to get input from the various entities, an attempt was made to be as fair as possible to all. The cuts were handled with a formula to determine the budgets in the various operating categories. The new budget in the areas of travel, supplies, student labor, etc. was determined by a formula which took into consideration the funds already encumbered, the funds remaining and a minimum and a maximum budget for the remainder of the year.

Obviously, these cuts have affected the institution greatly. Because of the continuous reductions and threat of further reductions, morale is down – making it difficult to maintain faculty and staff. Everyone has been doing more with less for 4 years.

However, because of dedicated faculty and staff and a willingness to look at other ways to work smarter, the core of Nicholls remains strong and the institution will survive and flourish even though the funding for Nicholls State and all of Louisiana higher education institutions remains well below that of our peer institutions in other states.

By shulbert | Posted in 2011 - 2012 | Comments Off

Opening of the University and Initial Enrollment Assessment

August 20, 2011 at 11:05 am

TO: Faculty and Staff

RE: Opening of the University and Initial Enrollment Assessment

I want to thank faculty and staff at all levels for the concerted effort put forth to open Nicholls for fall classes. The arrival of thousands of students to the residence halls and classrooms almost all at once creates a challenging situation.

There are always problems in the reopening of a university for the fall semester. However, what I so very much appreciate is the positive attitude and enthusiasm of so many faculty and staff in trying to make this opening as smooth as possible.

According to preliminary enrollment data for fall 2011, the academic caliber and commitment of students at Nicholls is increasing.

Retention of first-time freshman students is 70 percent, exceeding the GRAD Act requirement of 68.1 percent. Moreover, the average ACT score for first-time freshman students is 21.7, exceeding the national average by 0.6 points and the Louisiana average by 1.6 points.

Total enrollment is expected to be down 200 students from fall 2010, but that is consistent with projections.

Several factors have contributed to the preliminary enrollment figure, all of which indicate compliance with the state’s higher education goals.

Nicholls students are progressing toward their degrees faster, as evidenced in the increased number of graduates for the last three years, the highest number of graduates per year in the school’s history. Also, data indicate a fall 2011 enrollment increase of more than 200 students at Fletcher Technical Community College. The total enrollment shows that Fletcher and Nicholls are working together to ensure access to all students in the region.

We will release more specific enrollment data and analysis once the information is available.

By Website Manager | Posted in 2011 - 2012 | Comments Off

Information Technology Initiative

August 19, 2011 at 4:16 pm

TO: The University Community

RE: Information Technology Initiative

Over the past three to five years, and probably longer, Nicholls State University has struggled to address needed enhancements to all types of information technology. Slowly and with strategic yet very costly commitments of scarce dollar resources, the university has made significant technological enhancements in support of the academic program and administrative services.

While the beneficial side of these enhancements is relatively clear, each addition or enhancement of technology makes the university community more dependent on computing support staff.

Until this past July, Nicholls has functioned through an outdated support structure for technology. More specifically, we have maintained two separate organizational structures: one each for the academic side of the house and one for administrative support. With both staffs being overwhelmed by the implementation of new software and systems, it has been progressively apparent that the old structure did not work.

As such, the university has reorganized its available computing resources and created a single Information Technology Division that encompasses all IT functions. These include: academic computing, telecommunications and networking, enterprise systems/administrative computing, special IT projects and computer set-up and maintenance.

The duties of the existing staff have been aligned to reflect the new organizational structure and salaries have been adjusted accordingly. The former computing staff, which involved twenty four positions, has been reduced by five positions, or by twenty percent, to nineteen positions against staffing of FY 2009. While there have been salary increases with this restructuring, the overall savings to the university is $116,663 against previous staffing levels.

The university will continue its efforts to manage the growth of the IT function in terms of staff support. However, it is clear that with every passing month we are adding computers, network devices, security cameras, wireless internet connections and servers, etc. And, each addition increases the university’s dependence on that technology and the staff who support it.