President's Testimony

Summary and Conclusions

I appreciate the very difficult balancing act this sub-committee must perform in meeting the state's needs for funding for health care, public safety, juvenile justice, elementary and secondary education and higher education, all of which are critically important.

As the State of Maryland's academic health center UMB is uniquely responsible for educating the vast majority of its health care workforce including its physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and social workers, areas where Maryland faces huge and growing workforce shortages.
 
This budget allows us to continue our planned expansion of our pharmacy and nursing programs at Shady Grove, and open the Pharmacy Hall Addition.  Absent these funds we cannot maintain, much less grow these programs. 

Our campus is meeting its end of the bargain in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.  Our entrepreneurial faculty already raise some two-thirds of our budget.  We have furloughed our employees and streamlined our operations to meet FY 09 budget challenges.  While the State's current fiscal position is particularly challenging, in 14 of the 15 years where I have been at its helm, UMB has dealt with annual structural deficits on the order of several million dollars, and will continue to do so in this year's request.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."  Franklin died in 1790; about 17 years before the birth of what has become the University of Maryland, Baltimore, but his advice remains as cogent today as it did then.  At a time when our state and nation grow ever more dependent on the knowledge economy that UMB faculty help to create, the health, law and social services workforce we educate, and the public service and clinical care we provide, may I respectfully request your support for our budget.

Thank you. If there are no questions, I shall go on to address the issues that the analyst has raised.

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