From the Chair
Gary Buterbaugh
There are a couple of things about which I might write to you,
but two of them stand out: how we spend our money in the Computer
Science Department and where the department is headed in the
future.
If you are a student, or if you are one of the alumni, you
probably have no idea how the Computer Science Department is funded
nor how we spend our money. Well here is your chance to learn!
We receive three different pots of money: ESF (Educational
Services Fee) money that comes from a special fee charged to
students and must only be used for instructional purposes; Regular
Budget money; and Gift money.
Each year we receive about $30,000 in ESF money. We use this
money almost entirely for computers (PC's and servers) for the
department. It is out of this money that we must purchase all
faculty computers, all computers for our Tompkins' lab and our
teaching classroom, and all our carts and projectors used in the
various classrooms. Our Facilities Committee handles this money
and seeks requests from faculty and then has the faculty rank the
requests.
In our Regular Budget, we get all together about $45,000. This
includes about $13,000 of Federal Work Study (FWS) money, some
travel money from the Dean and about $30,000 of operations money.
This year we have spent almost all of this money. We have about
$1800 left in FWS money. With our regular operational funds (and
university employment funds) we are really in the red by a little
bit if you include encumbered money (our service fee for the copier
and other things like that are encumbered). And this is with
almost three months left in our fiscal year (IUP's fiscal year goes
from July through June). And we need to bring candidates in to
fill two positions. Clearly someone is going to have to bail us
out!! A break down of how we have spent this money this year might
be of interest. Of the $48,927 spent to date, we have spent these
percentages, in the following categories:
Student Help 49.7%
Supplies 13.1%
Travel 9.6%
Printing 7.7%
Search 7.5%
Phones 6.9%
Other 5.5%
Our bright spot is Gift Money. This fiscal year, since July 1,
2000, we have received just over $10,000. Although almost half of
this ($5,000) was received from the PPG Foundation (about a third
for Scholarships, a third for Hardware and Software and a third for
Student Activities), over $5,000 was received from our alumni
through their personal gifts and corporate matching funds. We have
asked that alumni begin to tell us how to use the money; but still
over $4,500 was given for us to disburse. (We use a formula to put
the money into our funds). The funds and the amount that was
designated for each fund by alumni is shown, as well as the
percentages used in our formula for disbursement.
Scholarship $ 500 10%
Hardware and Software $ 100 40%
Endowment $ 52 10%
Student Activities $ 0 20%
General $ 0 20%
From the Scholarship fund we were able to award four $1,000
scholarships to recruit freshmen for next year. From our Student
Activities funds, we are able to support our Programming Team,
activities for the Computer Science Floor, and refreshments for
colloquia, internships functions, and other student activities. We
used money from our Hardware and Software funds last year to
furnish about half the computers for our new teaching classroom.
Our General fund is what pays for our alumni breakfast, allows us
to host company representatives and, we hope, will allow us to
purchase a new copier!
Keeping track of $$$MONEY$$$$ is one of the least favorite parts
of my job and consumes major amounts of my time (I spent about 6.5
hours this weekend on the budget!); but it is a necessary evil!
Now, on to the second subject. We are excited, but quite
overwhelmed with the many initiatives with which we are currently
confronted. These include:
Graduate program(s)
Retraining Workers (Santorium Grant)
Off campus courses
Corporate alliances
Software Development Center
NSF Security curriculum
NSF Information Technology Research
Security grant (Murtha Grant)
Our service courses, 101/201
Student Retention/Recruitment
The IBM System 390 Initiative
Getting grants
As indicated these provide great opportunities for our students and
faculty, but our faculty are, frankly, tired, feel they are behind,
and are over worked. The IUP Administration is aware of this and
the faculty had a very fruitful meeting with Associate Provost
recently. The faculty will be going on a "retreat" during finals
where we hope to talk about these initiatives and decide which
would be best for us to pursue.
A final note: It's not too early to plan on coming back for
Homecoming 2001!! The date is Saturday, October 6, 2001.
We Want To See You!(and give you the opportunity
to see us and your fellow alumni)Join Us For
A Homecoming
Alumni Breakfast
Saturday, October 6, 2001
Third Floor Stright Hall
8:30 am until 11:00 am
It's free !!!
You must make a reservation
by Wednesday, October 3
Call Carol at 724 357-2524 Or
-mail to camiller@grove.iup.edu