FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Stimulus money saves jobs, brings new
ideas to life

Auburn Montgomery expects to spend 88 percent of the $2.1 million it will receive next year in stimulus funds to save or create jobs and the remaining 12 percent to mitigate potential fee increases to students, Chancellor John Veres announced today.

Veres said the university’s vice chancellors reviewed 67 proposals, including 18 from the academic divisions, and tentatively selected 16 to fund for the coming year. Half of those chosen are in academics, including a plan to add a track in Nursing that will enable the school to admit more students. Nursing had space for only 55 percent of the students who applied for admission for the coming year.

“We were excited by the number of great presentations from individuals with ideas for innovative new programs or projects,” Dr. Keivan Deravi, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said. Proposals also were submitted by Student Affairs, Advancement, Outreach, ITS, Auxiliary Services, Campus Police, Sponsored Programs and the Research Council, Facilities, Financial Affairs and Human Resources.

Designation of the stimulus recipients remains tentative because the governor’s office has yet to release detailed guidelines for how the money can be spent. However, the federal stimulus legislation specifies that it can be used for job retention, job creation and mitigation of tuition increases. About one third of the proposals submitted did not fall into one of those categories. Of the 16 that were funded, six include provisions to retain existing employees, eight would create new jobs and three will mitigate a needed increase in students’ technology fee.

Although the Board of Trustees in June raised Auburn Montgomery’s technology fee from $6 per credit hour to $8, the deans and the chief information officer originally requested the fee be raised to $12 per credit hour in order to increase the capacity to deliver courses online and provide the IT infrastructure to meet current and projected needs.

Stimulus money also will be used to retain 13 positions that had been slated for elimination because of cuts to the university’s budget next year. Those positions, along with all the selected projects, will be reviewed spring or summer to determine which will receive stimulus funding for a second, and final, year, Veres said.

Veres went on to say, “In these challenging times, the university’s main objective was to extend employment for an additional year for many employees whose jobs might otherwise be eliminated at the end of September with the beginning of a new, reduced budget.

“However, we remain committed to maintaining both academic excellence and overall efficiency as we wrestle with the financial situation,” he said. “To that end, it is still likely that some positions may have to be eliminated.”

Veres expects the proposals funded with stimulus dollars to be self-supporting after two years.

Those whose positions and projects are slated to be funded with stimulus money for the coming year have been notified, according to Vice Chancellor for Financial Affairs Wanda Blake.

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Contact Information
Carolyn Kinney
Auburn Montgomery
University Relations
334-244-3642
ckinney@aum.edu