Jeff Bernstein/Collegian

With a $60 million downturn in state funding and $35 million less projected in federal stimulus money for the upcoming year, University of Massachusetts Chancellor Robert Holub warned that the school’s “debts will rise” earlier this week.

Speaking at this year’s first Faculty Senate budget meeting on Thursday afternoon, Holub said that stimulus money is what has kept UMass’s financials from being worse.

“What saved us last year was a large amount of federal stimulus,” said Holub, “otherwise we would have been $44 million in debt.” This year only $5 million in federal stimulus has been allocated so far, but Holub “anticipates more than $5 million.”

Last year’s deficit was also lessened by raising student fees by $12 million and $4.2 million for out-of-state students, said Holub.

Student fees will continue to rise this year up to 1.7 percent and 3 percent each year for 2012 and 2013. The out-of-state student rate is also rising, with 350 additional out-of state freshmen on campus this year. Holub said the rise in out-of-state students is due to a herculean campaign from UMass and a hired consultant firm. “The number of out-of-state students is up, but what is not reflected in this spreadsheet is that the quality of out-of-state students is up,” said Holub in his Budget Update address.

The cut in state funding will likely bring future deficits to UMass, Holub went on.

“One of the places the state takes money from is us.” He continued that the deficit will be $11 million in 2012 fiscal year and $24 million in 2013.

Before Chancellor Holub spoke about the budget at the meeting, he addressed a Sept. 5 Boston Globe article which discusses UMass’s trouble getting top Massachusetts students. In the article Holub said, “We certainly can’t look to the state” for funding, yet in Thursday’s meeting he said “it could not be further from the truth,” and he has “not given up on state support.”

Randy Phillis, an associate professor of biology and president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors Union, also spoke at Thursday’s meeting.

Phillis said “to suggest we are second at best [in state universities] is disappointing,” and said that the state “can cut us to death, but we still are fabulous.”

State funding is up 2 percent from last year, but the state’s public university funding is down 13 percent, said Phillis in his address to the senate. Phillis then switched toward advocating for the faculty.

“Investment in building is appreciated, investment in the students is appreciated, but the investment in faculty is not appreciated,” he said, noting the importance of the professors to the University’s fortunes.

Student Government Association President Brandon Tower was also present, and addressed the senate for his first time on Thursday.

“I am here, both literally and figuratively, I am here,” Tower said before he pledged to fill all vacant seats in the student government.

“There will be a lot of changes, we will work collaboratively, not as adversaries,” he added.

Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, Joyce Hatch gave updates on the campuses construction projects. She explained that the Southwest residential area project was scheduled to be complete by the beginning of the fall semester, but when PCBs, toxic chemicals banned in the United States since 1979, were found in certain structures, “staff worked around the clock to get it everything except for the planting done during the fall semester,” she said.

Hatch, a 1988 UMass graduate, also said that the new police station will be open in the spring, two new sites are being reviewed for new student housing, and the two science buildings will be done in approximately two years. She called all this “the fastest project UMass has ever done with the state.”

Joseph Bartolomeo of the English Department, Joseph Berger of the Education Policy, Research, and Administration Department, D. Anthony Butterfield from the School of Management, and Mari Castaneda from the Communication Department were unanimously elected to the Rules Committee. Barolomeo was also elected Chair of the Rules Committee.

The Faculty Senate Office also submitted new course proposals, including Civil Engineering 550 “Introduction to Bridge Engineering,” French 289 “Paris Through the Centuries,” Scandinavian 387 “Viking Revival: National Romanticism and the Creation of a Nordic Ideal,” and Junior Year writing classes for sports management majors, accounting majors, finance majors, and hospitality management majors.

Sam Hayes can be reached at [email protected].