As you no doubt heard, the State passed a budget last week. This included about $365 million dollars more than last year: $106 million in one-time money from the Federal stimulus, $199 in restored permanent budget, and some $60 million in “growth” dollars. As a result, campuses have been given new targets for THIS academic year. Time to start growing again!

The real problem that arises here is that the increased enrollment needs to be made up entirely in the Spring semester. It is not clear that the system can actually make the target. Apparently the budget legislation says that if the system doesn’t make the target then the state can take back the growth money. How this will play out remains to be seen.