d the axe
?ampus priorities exposed
7uring the fiscal crunch
By'MARK GINDIN
Daily staff writer
How does a college continue to expand in the
face of shrinking state appropriations? The
chancellors of the University's Flint and Dear-
orn branches are currently grappling with
is difficult question. Skeptical fiscal planning
is at least one solution, and it has been suc-
cessfully applied on the Flint campus.
Last fiscal year, when the state first
promised a reasonable increase in ap-
propriations to higher education, most state
schools-including the University's Ann Arbor
and Dearborn campuses-counted on at least
part of that increase while planning their
budgets.
LATER, WHEN the governor slashed that
moderate increase to a moderate decrease,
n Arbor and Dearborn administrators were
ft ' scrambling to slash their -own
budgets-and thus their programs-to make up
the difference.
At Flint, however, more cynical ad-
ministrators never counted on-getting any in-
crease at all in state appropriations, and they
planned their budget accordingly. When Gov.
Milliken reduced the money going to state
schools, the Flint campus was in a better
position to absorb the reduction without having
to slash programs and faculty positions.
EVERYBODY WAS expecting the worst, but
nobody expected what actually happened. All
three University of Michigan campuses ap-
proved their budgets last year at only a three
percent increase in state appropriations over
the previous year. Administrators assumed
that would cover the worst possibility. Around
Christmas 1980, however, the governor issued
an executive order to reduce funding for
higher education by fve percent.
See ADMINISTRATORS, Page 10
Daily Photos by PAUL ENGSTROM
LINT CHANCELLOR Conny Nelson (right) is planning to increase the student population at the Flint
impus by a third. To have 1985 as the target date for the enrollment increase, programs as well as
uldings will have to be added to attract new students. Construction is well underway on the campus'
orts and Recreation Building, the newest of the buildings at the Flint campus.
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