President's Testimony

• Since UMB's achievements are far too numerous to include in the body of my remarks I have appended to my testimony a few other items that might be of interest.
  
  
• Thank you for the support you have always given to the State of Maryland's health, law and social work campus.  The trust that you place in UMB and in the Chancellor, the Board of Regents and the University System of Maryland generally, is in large part responsible for what we have been able to achieve.
  
  
• The Regents are unsung heroes who devote literally thousands of hours governing the University System, and whose wisdom, leadership and dedication have benefited all Marylanders.  A case in point is the Regents' Efficiency and Effectiveness (E&E) initiative that to date has saved the State of Maryland tens of millions of dollars. 
  
  
• The analyst has suggested that the E&E initiative should be routinely included as part of the budget process.  Speaking on behalf of the UMB campus let me ask that you NOT take that action.  If they are to continue to govern responsibly and well, the Regents as representatives of the citizens of Maryland must continue to have appropriate financial flexibility to act as the situation requires.  They alone are in a position to observe and respond to the different needs of the USM institutions.  Their freedom to do so must continue if Maryland is to have the quality of public higher education that its citizens deserve.
  
  
• Maryland's citizens deserve the best that higher education can produce.  HEIF is proving to be one of the best things to happen to higher education in my time in Maryland.  I and my colleagues at UMB are very grateful for this initiative, but we are also concerned with the analyst's recommendation of an across-the-board cut of $8.7 million.  This of course is on top of the $12 million cut that the System absorbed last summer in our FY 08 budget and which will continue into this year's budget.  This puts us in the position of having to rob Peter to pay Paul, and is certainly NOT what was intended when HEIF was created.
  
  
• I hope that even as you seek to balance the State's needs against its fiscal health you will think kindly of the System in general and the University of Maryland, Baltimore in particular and continue to invest in excellence.
  
  
• Thank you for your attention.  If there are any questions I would be happy to respond at this time.  If not, I will continue on to the issues the analyst has raised.

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