NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2004

 

Contact: Eric Gerber
713.743.8189 (office)
713.617.7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu

UH SYSTEM REGENTS APPROVE $933 MILLION BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005
Plans Include Faculty Expansion, Additional Construction
as Record Fall Enrollment Anticipated

HOUSTON, Aug. 19, 2004 – A $933 million budget for fiscal year 2005 has been approved by the University of Houston System Board of Regents.

The action was taken at a Thursday meeting that also saw the election of Morgan Dunn O’Connor as the board’s new chair and the confirmation of Tim Hudson as president of UH-Victoria. (Separate releases have been distributed on these subjects.)

The budget represents a 5.8 percent increase from the previous year’s total of $882 million. The new budget increases student scholarship funds, expands the number of faculty members by nearly 10 percent, provides raises of two to three percent for staff, and finances a number of construction projects at all four universities in the UH System. The UH System is projecting a record enrollment of more than 57,000 students for Fall 2004.

Campus by campus, the budget breaks down this way:

  • University of Houston -- $717 million
  • UH-Clear Lake -- $80 million
  • UH-Downtown -- $89 million
  • UH-Victoria -- $26 million
  • UH System Administration -- $19 million

Additionally, the board approved final draft status of the Strategic Principles and Initiatives document that will guide UHS planning and decision-making going forward. (See http://www.uhsa.uh.edu/sysplanning/finalprinciples.doc.) These initiatives include the development of new multi-institution teaching centers (MITCs) in high-growth regions, with facilities being planned in the Cypress Fairbanks/Highway 290 region, in Pearland, and in the Texas Medical Center. Currently, UHS has MITCs in Sugar Land and in Cinco Ranch.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SYSTEM
The University of Houston System is the state’s only metropolitan higher education system, encompassing four universities and two multi-institution teaching centers. The universities are the University of Houston, a nationally recognized doctoral degree-granting, comprehensive research university; the University of Houston-Downtown, a four-year undergraduate university beginning limited expansion into graduate programs; and the University of Houston-Clear Lake and the University of Houston-Victoria, both upper division and master’s-level institutions. The centers are the UH System at Sugar Land in Fort Bend and the UH System at Cinco Ranch. In addition, the UH System includes KUHF-FM, Houston’s National Public Radio and classical radio station, and KUHT-TV, the nation’s first educational television station.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.