Budget season has begun in Indiana, and Ball State administrators are seeking about $6.5 million in state funding to subsidize student growth.
The $6.5 million, needed to help pay for enrollment in the 2000 and 2001 school years and estimated enrollment for this year and the next, eclipses every other campus request in the state except for Ivy Tech State College.
Ball State's proposal, along with a $708,087 request to pay for the Music Instruction Building's maintenance, currently awaits action by Indiana's Commission for Higher Education.
The Commission does not wield any decision-making powers, but their recommendations are often heeded by legislators, who have the final say in budgetary matters.
Mike Baumgartner, the Commission's associate commissioner for facilities and financial affairs, said the 13 commissioners will try to stay as close to Ball State's request as possible. In the midst of a $1.3 billion state budget deficit, however, they may have to make cuts, Baumgartner said.
"Us asking for the money doesn't mean we're going to get it," said Tom Morrison, Ball State's director of state fiscal relations. "It's wishful thinking to hope the economy's going to turn around."
Any money not provided by the state would probably come from tuition, Morrison said.
Ball State's request, the second largest amount proposed by Indiana's campuses, reflects Ball State's ballooning enrollment, surpassed only by Ivy Tech.
But while administrators have touted the higher numbers as a blessing, the surplus of students is a mixed one.
First, even though enrollment is increasing, state appropriations are falling.
Also, the previous state budget, drafted in 2001, gave Ball State enough to help fund 15,804 students in the 2000 school year and 15,960 in 2001. Yet, about 375 more students than expected enrolled in 2000, and about 1,000 more enrolled in 2001, according to a report from the Commission.
The state will pay for that surplus next year, but until then Ball State and its students had to pay for the overflow in increased tuition.
Morrison said this year's and next year's estimates, set at 17,263 and 17,930 respectively, should be accurate when only considering in-state, full-time students.
The Commission will meet again in October to discuss Ball State's entire budget request. Baumgartner said he could not comment on aspects of the budget that have not been made public.
He said the budget proposals mentions nothing of the tentative $1,000 tuition increase, which Ball State's Board of Trustees will vote on Sept. 26.
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