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A newsletter from the Vice President for Administration and Finance, Business Services, Finance, Facilities, Computer Services, Human Resources Departments

Briefly from the VP

Update on legislative issues that may interest you.

The Senate has been discussing a pay increase for State employees as they go through the appropriation's bill. That's good news to see it this early in the legislative session. Some Senator's are concerned about the large turnover in State employees. To stop that tide a larger then normal State pay raise would be needed. The projection for new revenue for the next biennium is not as healthy as the past biennium. Several mandatory items will take a large piece out of new revenue. Thus if we do see an employee pay raise above the normal 3% that has historically need given, we would be very pleased.

The University is seeing a modest increase in appropriations in the last budget writeup from the Senate. We are hopeful that final funding numbers will enable us to meet the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the next two years.

We have asked the Legislature to fund capital projects in these three areas an expansion of the Center for Community Initiatives building (use to be PTI Building); to fund the upgrading of the air conditioning system in University West and to make the building more energy efficient; and to buy the building next to the CCI building across the street for facilities services functions. All three requests seem to be going through the Legislative system at 90% of what was asked which is very good.

Lastly, we asked that the Regional Outreach Center be increased in funding from $300,000 to $500,000. So far the Legislature has shown a willingness to fund $300,000. The LEAD initiative request was for $500,000. We also asked for an increase to the SBDC funding from $150,000 to $200,000. All requests for new funds are in Article IX of the appropriations bill awaiting to see how much additional funding will be available for those items.

So we will see how it all turns out. Right now we are a little early in the Legislative process.

Policies and Procedures

The following policies were approved by Cabinet and are available on the web for viewing:

Facilities Grounds Usage, H-1 is available on the web for viewing at http://www.uhv.edu/fin/policy/index.htm.

News from Computer Services

Audiovisual Update
- Interactive Video (ITV) Room 312 is now operational.

- ITV Rooms 215 & 302 have updated microphones

- All Audio Visual work in UC is 98% complete.

Communications System
Computer Services has a new communication system in operation to keep in touch with assistants in the field as they perform computer troubleshooting tasks. This will keep them from having to tie up phones in your department while working on computers.

Help Desk
Help Desk phones are manned from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Help Desk Assistants are ready to serve you from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Laptop
We now have one laptop computer that is available for Staff to check out through the Computer Services Office, ext. 390. The laptop may be checked out from 1-7 working days at a time or more if unusual circumstances exist.

Telecommunications
You can now dial 570-4882 form home and get your phone mail. Just follow the prompts to your personal phone mail messages.

Update from Systems/Network Administrator

The UH-Victoria PeopleSoft file server and batch server were installed March 7. Having these servers located on campus should improve performance for testing purposes and actual production.

A UHV PeopleSoft listserv was created to promote discussion of PeopleSoft issues among campus users. The listserv will also be used to notify users of training schedules so that travel to Houston may be coordinated.

If you would like to subscribe to the PEOPLESOFT-L listserv, you can do so by sending an e-mail message
To MailServ@jade.uhv.edu
with the single line:
subscribe PEOPLESOFT-L

Budget Office

Each department should have received a FY02 Planning/Budgeting Instructions booklet during the week ending March 23. If you have not received the booklet, Karen Boldt will be happy to provide a copy.

Note: Budget hearing dates have been rescheduled since January. Please mark your calendars for Tuesday May 1st and Wednesday May 2nd for the new dates. The hearings are open to all faculty, staff and students who wish to attend. Refer to the 2002 Budget Hearing times available on the web at www.uhv.edu/fin/oaf2/budoff/02budhrg.pdf