Budget Message
May 6, 2021
Faculty, Staff, and Students,
Back in February, I shared with you my enthusiasm for the Governor's proposed budget.
Recently, President Boyd reported the budget has been enacted by the Tennessee General
Assembly. It is a strong higher education budget with major commitments to UTHSC.
UT and UTHSC, along with our Office of Government Relations and Advocacy, have worked
throughout the year with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the Governor's
Office, and the Tennessee General Assembly to call attention to our campus needs.
The current budget proposal contains several key items for UTHSC:
- Provides a 4% increase in the state (orange) portion of compensation. Details of how these compensation increases will be awarded will be announced in the future.
- Restores annual increases to fund UTHSC campus operational costs – an item in the budget that was removed five years ago. This represents $5.1 million recurring in this current budget, which includes the annual increased cost of maintaining our campus infrastructure including not only bricks and mortar, but the electronic backbone, and the support services that keep our campus running.
- Funds the build-out of the top two floors of the Nash Building as state-of-the-art laboratory space for our research mission. This will complete our Historic Quadrangle renovation.
- Funds the renovations of the UTHSC Campus Police Building.
- Provides essential maintenance funds for roof repairs and other core major building items across the UTHSC campus.
- Provides one-time funds for the Oak Ridge Institute, of which UTHSC is a member.
- Provides $4 million in recurring money (shared with ETSU) to fund new GME positions across the state.
The budget allows us to, in most cases, avoid any tuition or fee increases for our
students this year.
This budget reflects a real commitment from the state to our mission, while recognizing the
contributions of all our faculty and staff.
Steve J. Schwab, MD
Chancellor