Uncle Sam Promises $54 Million Boost for SD Universities FY2012

Please tell me Kristi Noem and John Thune won't send this money back: Governor Rounds's budget proposal has Uncle Sam giving $54 million more to South Dakota's public university system in Fiscal Year 2012. That increase is part of $248 million in total anticipated federal funding for Board of Regents programs. Essentially, Uncle Sam picks up 31% of the total $797 million Regental budget.

Some universities come out better than others under the proposed budget. Here's a chart of the net changes proposed from this year's budget to next year's:

	Proposed Changes from FY 2011 to FY2012
Location	State Fund	Federal Fund	Other Fund	Total	FTE
Total	$3,818,909	$53,823,221	$19,902,254	$77,544,384	227.5
Central Office	($6,026)	$0	$1,650,845	$1,644,819	0.0
Scholarships	$31,642	$0	$0	$31,642	0.0
Employee Compensation and Health Insurance	$3,051,208	$1,113,729	$3,181,609	$7,346,546	0.0
USD	$178,715	($2,737,138)	$0	($2,558,423)	0.0
USD Med	$106,310	($1,628,199)	$0	($1,521,889)	0.0
SDSU	$247,604	$4,807,787	$11,412,400	$16,467,791	136.5
SDSM&T	$80,969	$56,579,910	$1,930,000	$58,590,879	40.0
NSU	$48,780	($747,103)	$0	($698,323)	5.0
BHSU	$40,173	($5,710,280)	$477,400	($5,192,707)	11.0
DSU	$39,534	$2,144,515	$1,250,000	$3,434,049	35.0

The biggest chunk of new federal dollars goes to the School of Mines (Tony's probably building an even bigger laser to pop popcorn at the dean's house). The biggest jump in jobs, though, comes at SDSU, which gets 60% of the new full-time equivalents.

Dakota State University comes out o.k., with nearly three and a half million more in funding and 35 new jobs. That would make up nicely for the seven teachers the Madison Central School District would have to fire to make up for the $275K Governor Rounds wants to cut from their budget. Maybe we just need to graduate some kids early and send them to DSU.