Members of the Kansas Board of Regents are sticking to their guns for requesting a 15 percent budget increase next year.

But Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway admitted the large increase probably didn’t stand a chance, considering the $310 million shortfall the state faces this year.

“Any budget that has been created is understood to be dead on arrival,” he said. “There will be a period of time before the current governor, new governor and legislature have a clear path to follow.”

Marvin Burris, the regents’ vice president for finance and administration, said Wednesday regents would ask for $813 million for the state’s universities, community colleges and technical schools. That’s up from $707 million this year.

University budgets would increase 10.3 percent under the proposal. A 10 percent increase would move KU’s budget, including KU Medical Center, from $237 million this year to $261 million next year.

Included in the university totals is funding for the third year of Senate Bill 345, a 1999 measure that was intended to increase university faculty salaries for four years. That would cost $21 million, according to regents documents.

Duane Goossen, Gov. Bill Graves’ budget director, has recommended a 5.1 percent decrease in spending for state universities next year. His recommendation doesn’t include Senate Bill 345 funding. It also eliminates funding for the Regents Honors Academy, a program for high-schoolers that costs $110,000 per year, and dues to the Midwest Higher Education Commission, which run $82,500 per year.

Goossen’s recommendation will be a factor in the final budget Gov.-elect Kathleen Sebelius presents to the 2003 Legislature.

Regent Dick Bond, Overland Park, said he thought regents shouldn’t back off their initial proposal. Regents staff will officially appeal Goossen’s recommendation next week.

“I can’t see at this point we’d want to do anything but stay the course on our request, at least in the short run,” he said.

But regents’ strategy may change as the 2003 Legislature convenes, Burris said.

Kansas University sophomore Cassie Jahr, Stillwater, Minn., reads a newspaper in between classes in Strong Hall. Administrators in Strong Hall are slowly shedding light on the budget cuts for next school year.

“I don’t know how hard we press for the $105 million increase, but that’s what we have out there and what we said we needed,” he said.

Meanwhile, higher-education officials – like most in state government – are preparing for possible rescissions to the current year’s budget, as revenue estimates continue to fall below projections.

“We think we’re going to be facing some serious budget reductions, unless higher education is held completely harmless,” Burris said.

Burris said it was too early to tell how much the current year’s reductions could be or when they might come.

Hemenway said KU administrators would continue sending messages to deans and department heads to keep a reserve fund for later in the fiscal year, in case budget reductions are necessary.

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“We have been asking schools and colleges to withhold spending and operate as leanly as possible because we know there’s a good chance of recisions,” he said. “We’re trying to be good Boy Scouts, and their motto is to be prepared.”

He also said the longer decisions on the current year’s budget were delayed, the tougher it would be on universities.

“We have to know quickly because every day that passes it becomes a little more difficult to cut, because classes need to be taught and equipment needs to be purchased,” he said.

Regent Fred Kerr, Pratt, said the budget situation meant officials needed to continue lobbying for higher education.

“The implications of this are so critical,” he said. “How higher education continues through the next year or two will have a lot to do with how it does 10 or 20 years after that, speaking of the people we’re able to retain in the system. It’s a dire time for education. It’s critical.”