A proposed $1.28 billion operating budget for the 2007 fiscal year is scheduled for discussion this morning by the OU Board of Regents.

An across-the-board raises of 2 percent for most Norman campus faculty, staff and graduate assistants are in store if the regents approve the budget, which earmarks $679 million for Norman and $603 million for the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. The budget also calls for merit-based raises averaging another 2 percent.

Tuition and fees are scheduled to go up by 5.8 percent for an average continuing resident student, although OU President David L. Boren said this year's increase is the lowest in nine years.

"Our top goal was to provide a meaningful compensation program for the faculty and staff while keeping tuition and fee increases for students as low as possible," Boren said.

The regents are scheduled to meet starting at 9 a.m. today in the Noble Conference Center in Ardmore. In addition to approving the budget and setting tuition, their agenda also calls for them to consider policy changes affecting OU, Cameron University in Lawton, and Rogers State University in Claremore.

Resident tuition at the main OU campus would be set at $100.20 per credit hour, or $5,109.50 for two 15-hour semesters. Graduate students would pay $132.50 per credit hour, and law students would pay $339.95 per credit hour. Non-resident undergraduates would spend an additional $276.3 for each credit hour.

In a letter to students and employees, Boren said OU remains one of the least expensive Big 12 schools to attend.

The Oklahoma State Board of Regents, which met Friday, approved a more than $1 billion state education budget. The state regents allocated almost $243 million to OU, including $136.3 million for the main campus and $91 million for HSC.

Maryanne Malete, state vice chancellor for budget and finance, said the Oklahoma Legislature boosted its higher education appropriation by $85 million to help keep tuition down.

Although OU officials anticipated a number of scenarios, no one knew for certain how much state money the university would get. The state regents are scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. Thursday to review the budgets developed by each of the subordinate boards.

Boren said the proposed budget for OU will allow for the addition of some 25 new faculty positions. A hiring freeze on new faculty was put in place after the economic downturn which followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Boren said the new positions will allow the university to improve its faculty-to-student ratio, which used to be at about 18.5-to-1, but has slipped to nearly 22-to-1.

A $500,000 increase for the OU libraries is also part of the budget proposal.

At the Health Sciences Center, plans call for construction of a new Comprehensive Cancer Institute and a Diabetes Center. At the OU-Tulsa satellite campus, $14 million in debt will be retired and that money will be freed up to be spent elsewhere.

"This is a great moment for Oklahoma," state regents member Stuart Price said after the board unanimously approved the state's first ever higher education budget to surpass $1 billion.

Price joined Paul G. Risser, state higher education chancellor, in praising Oklahoma legislators for reaching a budget compromise that allows an overall 14.6 percent hike in funding for post-high school education.

The appropriation for the Norman campus includes almost $3.2 million for the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, $1.6 million for the statewide MESONET meteorology data system and $128.2 million in general funding.

The state regents had earlier requested $123 million for general funding. Boren said May 1 that if the state met the state regents' request of $123 million, tuition would increase by $244 per student per year, the lowest increase in about 10 years. The estimate is for students averaging 30 hours per academic year.

Another $6 million is slated to go to the OU College of Law, which is budgeted separately.

Malete said $8.5 million in state funding is earmarked for fast-growing institutions that have been underfunded in the past, such as Northeastern Oklahoma State University's branch campus at Broken Arrow.

A $4.6 million statewide initiative to support training in allied health fields will go mostly to HSC and the OU-Tulsa branch campus, while another $1.4 million initiative which will also benefit the OU Tulsa campus.

The total appropriation for HSC is $91.8 million, which is a more than 16 percent increase from the current fiscal year.

OU Tulsa's total appropriation is $8.7 million, and is 16.5 percent more than the amount for the fiscal year 2006.

The state's other comprehensive research university, Oklahoma State University, will get $22.9 million more next year than it did in the 2006 fiscal year. OSU's total appropriation is $241 million, a 10.5 percent increase over the current fiscal year,

The University of Central Oklahoma, the state's third-largest higher educational institution, is slated to get $53.8 million in the fiscal year 2007. That's an increase of 18.6 percent over the current year.

Several of the smaller, regional colleges and universities got substantial increases.

Oklahoma City Community College's $24.9 million appropriation is 30.8 percent bigger than its fiscal 2006 funding amount, while Redlands Community College will see a 27 percent bigger appropriation of $5.4 million.

In addition to setting appropriations, the regents also heard a request from the Oklahoma National Guard to make changes to its tuition assistance program.

One would allow any Oklahoma National Guard member to attend school at the in-state tuition rate, regardless of where he or she is from.

Another would lift the requirement that National Guard members complete their degree programs within six years in order to qualify for tuition assistance.
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