tl20080929-01 "Now on TheTowerlight.com: View video footage of international students as they learn how to play football... Sept. 29, 2008 Monday www.thetowerlight.com FREE The Towerlight Published by Baltimore Student Media for the Towson University Community Your slice of the pie Serving it up... General Funds Allocation per Full-time Equivalent Students Institution *UM Baltimore UM College Park Coppin State UM Baltimore County UM Eastern Shore University of Baltimore Bowie State Frostburg State Salisbury Towson #UM University College State Funds $33,155 $14,266 $11,121 $9,714 $9,237 $8,825 $8,221 $7,887 $5,827 $5,663 $1,624 * UMB is a professional, medical and graduate institution # UMUC is a primarily an online institution Illustration by Rachel Fauber How the University System, tuition and fees pay for your education Kiel McLaughlin Editor in Chief Tuition alone does not pay for a student�s college educa-tion. While students foot the bill for lab fees and the ever-more- expensive textbooks, the state government contributes thousands of dollars per student for higher education. It is estimated that in 2009, the University System of Maryland will distribute more than $1.1 billion to state institutions to supplement tuition. These dollars go toward paying for facilities, support staff, faculty members and other categorically funded parts of a school�s budget. University of Maryland Baltimore receives the highest rate of funding, more than $33,000 per full-time equivalent student. The professional, medical and graduate school has higher costs than other institutions, Joe Vivona, the vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief operating officer of the USM, said. University of Maryland College Park, a major research insti-tution, receives more than $14,000 per FTE. Towson, the largest comprehensive institution in the state, receives $5,663 per FTE, the second lowest figure in the System. The only institution that receives less funding than Towson is the University of Maryland University College, a predominantly online school with costs that are mostly new technologies and faculty. �At Towson, there is a history of underfunding, but I think I�ve fixed that,� Vivona said. �I�m pleased with where the school�s funding is now.� Institutional funding is compared against peer groups and Towson receives 87 percent of the average within their group-ing, a number that Vivona considers a success. Some faculty members, however, disagree, saying they still feel Towson does not receive adequate support. University Senate chair and economics professor Tim Sullivan said that departments are unable to attract and retain quality faculty because of the low funding figures. �We are a victim of our own efficiency and we can be taken advantage of,� Sullivan said. �Once you are in a situation where you are doing a good job and making every dollar count, stretching everything you have, the legislature has a tendency to just expect you to keep delivering in the same way.� In the last 10 years, Towson�s funding per FTE has seen major ebbs and flows. Receiving just a little more than $4,000 in 1999, the school jumped to more than $5,000 per FTE in 2002, before quickly falling back to $4,264 two years later. Since President Robert Caret�s return to Towson in 2003, FTE funding has grown to an all-time high. The estimate for 2009 is more than a $400-increase above that of the current fiscal year. According to Caret, Towson historically has higher tuition and fee costs than other USM schools, leading to an adequate funding total. Caret said his concern is finding a balance between what the state pays and what students must pay to meet the budget. �Twenty years or so ago, we were looking for 70 percent from the state and 30 percent from the students and par-ents. When I got back [to Towson in 2003], it was the exact opposite,� he said. �Now we are almost back up to 40 percent from the state.� Photo by Eric Gazzillo/The Towerlight See FTE, page 7 "
