Budget Proposal Reflects Our Shared Priorities

President Capilouto sent the following message to UK faculty and staff on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. 

UK Community,

We are finalizing a budget for the University of Kentucky for Fiscal Year 2019-20 for consideration by our Board of Trustees at its June meeting.

It is a budget that reflects our momentum and our unwavering belief in the work that you do. Our graduation and retention rates are at record levels, and we awarded more than 5,300 degrees last weekend. Our faculty and staff are earning more external research support than at any time in our history. We have the No. 1 Hospital in the state of Kentucky – again. And as of May 1, more than 5,400 young women and men have committed to be first-year students here in Fall 2019.

As we craft our budget, our priorities will continue to be: ensuring affordable access to the outstanding education you provide to our students; providing competitive compensation for the faculty and staff who make our work possible; and continuing our strategic investments in our research and service missions. The proposed budget includes:

— A 2 percent merit pool raise for eligible non-UK HealthCare faculty and staff. Salary adjustments for UK HealthCare employees may be considered later, as UK HealthCare functions on a separate salary increase cycle. If the budget is adopted by the Board, this increase will represent the seventh year in a row of pay raises for our employees.

— A 2.4 percent increase in undergraduate resident tuition and mandatory fees for academic year 2019-20 (following a 2.5 percent for 2018-19). We will continue to make significant investments in scholarships and grants that do not have to be repaid, and we will enter our fourth year of implementing UK LEADS, which focuses on addressing students’ unmet financial need.

— A commitment to keeping increases to health plan premiums, to the extent they occur, at modest levels. You can view details about all of UK’s competitive benefits as part of open enrollment here.

— A $3 increase in monthly parking fees for intermediate tier spaces. Periphery parking rates will be held flat, providing a no-cost increase option. You can view the current distribution of parking spaces here.

Your resourcefulness and ingenuity make possible our progress, as represented by this proposed budget. And, at the same time, our efforts to create efficiencies and generate additional revenues through Our Path Forward are yielding important results.

We conduct our work in the midst of what remains a challenging financial climate for higher education in our state and across much of the country. But you prove each day that what we do matters – for the future of our students, for those we help and heal, and for all we serve, in Kentucky and around the world.

Thank you for all you do.

Eli Capilouto

President

University of Kentucky