Fate of state funds still unclear

TSG representatives and administrators continue to push state legislature to pass Temple’s funding.

Temple, along with three other state-related institutions — Lincoln University, the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University, is still without approved commonwealth appropriations, weeks after most state agencies received necessary funds.

Last spring, Temple administrators passed a budget that gave the university its lowest tuition increase in 13 years, 2.9 percent. Trustees said if appropriations are not approved in time, they might need to raise tuition for the upcoming spring semester. In addition to a tuition increase, more across-the-board cuts are possible.

Temple Student Government Vice President of External Affairs Anthony Leyro said students should remember it’s not a conflict with passage of the state budget.

“We want to remind everyone that just because our state budget got passed, didn’t mean our appropriations got passed,” said Leyro. “It’s still up in the air, so [administrators] just want us to put a little pressure on the representatives to vote on it and get it passed because they are trying to tie it to [casino] table games.

“And we believe there’s enough money in the pool for our appropriations to get passed,” he added.

Leyro and TSG Vice President of Services Jon DeSantis worked on the One-Thousand Voices Campaign, an initiative to get 1,000 signatures and letters to sent to senators, state representatives and the governor, this summer when this issue first came up. The pair eventually went online with the campaign, posting links on Facebook and Twitter.

The two TSG executive board members eventually went to Harrisburg to conduct a press conference with Penn State and handed out 3,000 letters to senators, representatives and the governor.

Leyro is not the only one urging communication with state-elected officials. TSG Senate President Jeff Dempsey said TSG will pull its resources to lead students and show them what their powers are through the voting process.

“Temple is already appealing [to state-elected officials], so students might have to look ahead to the upcoming primary election to influence action,” Dempsey said. “There is an election season coming up in May. Maybe student government can step up and inform students about how they can affect the political system.

“Look at your classes,” he continued. “Most of your fellow peers aren’t from Philadelphia.They’re from a different part of Pennsylvania or a different part of the world, and some aren’t ready to register to vote yet.

“We need to localize our efforts a little bit more and hit up these politicians that should be working for us,” Dempsey added.

TSG isn’t the only entity appealing to state-elected officials. On Oct. 21, President Ann Weaver-Hart – along with President Ivory Nelson of Lincoln University, the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and Penn State Chancellor Graham Spanier – wrote and signed a letter urging state officials to pass the commonwealth appropriations.

They write that the four state-related universities “have become a destination of choice for many of Pennsylvania’s most committed and talented high school students. These 158,000-plus Pennsylvania students (including more than 130,000 undergraduates) and their families continue to be directly impacted by the delay and uncertainty created by the lack of a final appropriation for each university.”

Before concluding the letter, the four university leaders wrote: “We respectfully request that all reasonable and appropriate measures be taken to finalize the budget and the appropriations of Pennsylvania’s state-related universities in order to minimize the financial harm and uncertainty impacting our students and their families.”

The State General Assembly meeting Nov. 9 was the next opportunity for action, however, there is not yet an update on the situation.

Joshua Fernandez can be reached at josh@temple.edu.

Hospital closure stirs area outrage

Temple may face extreme state funding cuts due to the unforeseen backlash received after the announcement about the closing of Northeastern Hospital.

Temple University Health System announced March 23 the hospital “will transition from an inpatient hospital to a multispecialty ambulatory care center by July 1, 2009.”

The university and its health system have been under intense scrutiny from both the community and elected officials since then.

“The decision was made in the face of declining utilization and mounting losses on health care operations at Northeastern Hospital,” said Rebecca Harmon, a spokesperson for TUHS.

The hospital is reported to have lost $6.6 million in the 2008 fiscal year and is projected to lose another $15 million in the 2009 fiscal year.

Temple officials are being criticized for not turning to elected officials for financial help to keep the hospital open. Community members are also outraged Temple did not include them in the decision process.

The common consensus is the change will leave thousands without a nearby emergency center, as well as cause hundreds to lose their jobs.

The change will primarily impact members of the Bridesburg, Fishtown, Kensington and Port Richmond communities. The hospital had approximately 60,000 emergency room patients and 1,800 baby deliveries last year.

State Reps. John Taylor and Michael O’Brien and state Sens. Michael Stack and Larry Farnes are the elected officials whose constituents will be most affected by the closing.

Stack held a meeting at his office with President Ann Weaver Hart and Edmond Notebaert, the president and CEO of TUHS, along with other local leaders after the announcement was made.

“Basically, they slapped us in the face and punched us in the stomach, and now they’re saying, ‘Can’t we all work together?’” Stack said after the meeting. “We all understand we have a health care crisis, but we’re not convinced closing Northeastern doesn’t add to it.”

The two parties did not reach an agreement on the fate of the hospital, Stack said.

“The elected officials and the coalition to save Northeastern Hospital are reviewing and considering all available options to keep Northeastern Hospital open,” he said.

Taylor, however, has already threatened to cut more than $150 million in funding, which Temple receives from the state. This would affect both TUHS and the university.

“No action has been taken, but [Taylor] has enough votes that the funding would definitely be cut from Temple,” said Paul Kaiser, an aid of Taylor’s.

Several community organizations are also jointly filing for temporary restraining orders with the hope of blocking the closure, Taylor said.

Northeastern is scheduled to begin reducing inpatient services in May and to end all emergency services by July 1. The hospital has been open for nearly 100 years.

Harmon said the new Northeastern Ambulatory Care Center will focus on prenatal care and family health, offer non-emergency walk-in care and provide outpatient specialty services.

Those in need are encouraged to seek inpatient services at Temple University Hospital.

“Northeastern Hospital has served this community for generations, and it is our intention to continue to meet the needs of our patients for years to come,” said Northeastern Hospital CEO John Buckley. “Those patients who require more complex care will continue to have access to their doctors at Temple University Hospital, as well as the hundreds of other specialty physicians at Temple University Hospital.”

Harmon said Human Resources will provide job search counseling to all affected Northeastern employees, but the closing of the hospital will create extensive job loss. It is estimated that approximately 800 employees will be given the axe.

“The creation of Northeastern Ambulatory Care Center permits us to continue to meet the current and future health care needs of the community with a financially sustainable model,” Notebaert said.

“Moving forward, we will continue to explore and consider additional options that would further enhance our ability to deliver health care services and education to the communities served by the new Ambulatory Care Center.”

Kathryn A. López can be reached at kathryn.lopez@temple.edu.

A loss of state funding leads to hiring freeze on campus

The university’s hiring freeze will not affect student jobs, and tuition is not expected to be raised for the spring semester, despite increased budgetary pressure from the state that has prompted the university to make across-the-board cuts, Temple financial officials said.

The university recently announced a sharp decline in state appropriations funding due to a historic state revenue shortfall that has forced it to increase its budget reserve to $11.63 million, or about 1.5 percent of its $775 million annual budget.

A budget reduction plan was originally drafted two weeks ago after the state notified Temple that 4.25 percent of its state appropriation would be put on reserve. Since then, the state’s revenue shortfall has increased from $200 million to $300 million, forcing Temple to prepare for a larger cut.

Anthony Wagner, Temple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, announced the immediate hiring freeze and the freeze on all out-of-state travel in a brief address to a solemn group at Feinstein Lounge at last Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting in Sullivan Hall.

Other measures in the original plan remain. The university will annul the 2 percent inflationary supplement of $1.6 million that was given to all schools and colleges for non-compensation costs, like office supplies and books. In addition, university officers will be given target amounts to reduce their budgets.

Student jobs went untouched because, unlike salary and benefits costs, they are “not a real significant part of the compensation budget,” said Ken Kaiser, Temple associate vice president and chief financial officer.

“We recognize that these jobs are important for students to earn some extra money while at the same time helping the university,” Kaiser said. “In some areas, the student workers are really critical, like in recreational services.”

Though Kaiser said “anything’s possible,” he also said he doubts spring semester tuition rates would be tweaked in order to raise revenue for the university.

“That’s not been talked about or considered,” Kaiser said, adding that in his years as a Temple student and employee dating back to 1985, he cannot remember a mid-academic year tuition raise.
With the uncertain economic climate, more cuts could be on the horizon for Temple, based on how the state’s economy performs leading up to Gov. Ed Rendell’s preliminary 2009-2010 budget draft in February.

At the board meeting, Wagner said the fallout from the financial crisis and the looming recession “could result in a loss of $1 billion” for the state.

For now, the university is still receiving regularly-scheduled payments from the state. But state department heads are placing money on reserve in case there is a budget deficit in five months.

By then, the university should definitively know how much of the state appropriation is cut.

Barring a dramatic economic turnaround, the hiring freeze and other measures are expected to last the rest of the academic year, Kaiser said. Other state-related universities, including Penn State, Pittsburgh and Lincoln have taken similar steps.

“When the governor proposes his budget in February, he’ll likely be conservative,” Wagner said at the board meeting.

Should Pennsylvania go through with the 4.25 percent cut, the university’s state appropriation will have decreased 2.8 percent from last year.

The university is anticipating a 3 percent decrease in funding and has modified its plan accordingly.
“This accentuates a 40-year trend on waning state appropriations and dependence on tuition,” Wagner said at the meeting.

Since 1972, the percentages have flipped: the university is relying twice as much on tuition and state appropriations have declined more than twofold.

Wagner closed his address saying that the university will continue to try and keep tuition down despite these obstacles.

In response to dwindling state funding, the university has encouraged more entrepreneurship among its schools and colleges as a way to gain new sources of revenue. This has made the school operate more like a private institution.

Kaiser said the university has given deans more freedom to initiate new programs and auxiliaries and to expand research.

“Putting them in control of their own destiny, so to speak,” he said.

Unlike a private university, Temple’s reliance on state funding insulates it to extreme cases of market volatility like the recent financial crisis, Kaiser said.

“The more schools depend on private investment, the more they’ll be at-risk,” Kaiser said. “The good news is that we’re a little insulated, but the bad news is that we’re insulated because our endowment isn’t as large.”

Nick Pipitone can be reached at nicholas.pipitone@temple.edu.