Wcc Says Budget Hike Of 5% Needed In Fiscal '75

An increase of about five per cení in Washtenaw Community College's operating budget will be needed to support an increase of less than three per cent in the number of credit hours students are expected to earn in the fiscal year starting next July 1, according to estimates WCC has sent to state budget officials. "Most of this is inflation and normal salary increases. There are no additions of full-time instructor? or administrative personnel," Dean of Business Operations William E. Jelneck commented Tuesday night. The proposed fiscal 1975 operating budget of $7.1 million, compared to this fiscal year's $6.8 million total, was sent last month to Gov. William G. Milliken's Office of Budget and Management, charted in the 10 categories required by OBM's program budget evaluation system (PBES). WCC trustees reviewed the proposal last night. No actfon was required by the trustees because OBM, in preparífíg the executive budget Gov. Milliken will present early in 1974, will use PBES data from all of Michigan's 29 community colleges, and state revenue estimates, to calcúlate state aid. Acpording to WCC's calculations, state aid should account for $1, 977,000 million of the college's fiscal 1975 revenue compared to 51,91,000 this fiscal year. v Tuition would be the largest source of support for the proposed $7.1 million budget, expected to support 74,090 credit 'hours toward associate degrees or for transfers to four-year universities. The state originally budgeted WCC for 71,920 credit hours in the current fiscal year, but that will be exceded by June 30 due to unexpectedly high enrollment last summer and this f all. Enrollment in terms of headcount is expect to rise from this year's high of 4, 418 to about 4,475. Credit-hour projections take account of a recent tendency among students to carry fewer credit hours than in the past, WCC President David H. Ponitz said. The Legislature, Ponitz commented, will presumably repeat last year's pattern of viewing the governor's PBES system as interesting, and then make its own calculations of state aid for community colleges based on a Legislative Fiscal Agency formula reflecting enrollment in four types of coúrses - liberal arts, health sciences, technical and vocational, Regardless of how its share of fiscal 1975 state aid is calculated, WCC estimates that it will have to meet these operating cost increases: from $4,936,000 to $5,188,000 for salaries and wages, from $1,370,000 to $1,439,000 for supplies, from $249,000 to $260,000 for class-related equipment. ' ' In capital outlay, a repeat is being asked - and anticipated .- of this year's $750,000 appropriation toward the $10million library-classroom building planned three years ago as the central structure of WCC's campus. Groundbreaking is tentavely planned early next spring. Ponitz reported that an $8-million bond issue approved by the WCC trustees in October to cover most of that project's costs is now 26th among bonding proposals for which various local agencies in the state are seeking approval from the Michigan Finance Commission. Financial aspects of the request have been cleared but action on legal aspects is needed from Atty. Gen. Frank J. Kelley, a member of the MFC. The college hopes to sell the bonds in January. Improved protection for WCC's existing buildings will be provided, Ponitz and Jelneck said, by a contract the trustees approved with Ann Arbor city government last night. The contract, approved Monday by City Council, calis on the city Fire Department taextend coverage to WCC's main campus, in southeast Ann Arbor Township, at a base cost of $5,500 per year plus $205 for each trip by any of the department's vehicles, from nextJan. 1 throughJuly 1,1975. Jelneck reported that when negotiations with the city were started 15 months ago, a price more than twice that now approved was requested along with a request that WCC insure the lives of firemen with a $l-million cash fund or an equivalent insurance policy. Even Lloyd's of London will not insure third parties on the terms the city requested, Jelneck said. The present city administration has accepted WCC's insurance covering all personnel on the campus, and property, up to $500,000 for injury or damages. The agreement replaces fire protection from Ann Arbor Township. WCC's Automotive Center on Carpenter Road continúes under Pittsfield Township Fire Department protection. In other business, the WCC trustees reiterated their long-standing advocacy of a vocational training center for highschool age youths. The trustees voted unanimously for a resolution urging Washtenaw County voters to approve tax increase of one mili per $1,000 of state equalized valuation which will be voted on Jan. 22. Ponitz emphasized that the proposed center, which would involve a new building providing vocational courses not available at area high schools, would be for "secondary level" students, meaning high school age. "The college is an area vocational center in terms of post-secondary students," he emphasized, adding "I would categorize the need of this area as a división of labor between secondary and postsecondary vocational education. I can see a number of areas where the community college shóüld work cooperatively with an area secondary vocational center . . . in a contractual relationship." Two autos were among gifts to WCC formally accepted by the trustees last night. Former WCC student Barbara Fahmie of Ann Arbor donated a 1968 Chevrolet Impala for instructional use by WCC's Automotive Center, and Clan Crawford of Ann Arbor gave a 1969 Mercury Cougar for WCC staff transportation. Also accepted was a gift of books, journals, films and equipment for black studies and science courses from WCC biology instructor William E. Alexander of Ann Arbor; a $750 check from the Zonta Club of Ann Arbor for the student loan fund; and a book for WCC's library, "Bar-Notes of Orwell's Animal Farm," for George Greque of Whitmore Lake.