The 2013 legislative session has convened, and elected officials will begin to work on the state’s two-year budget. UNC Charlotte leaders have determined institutional priorities, which must be presented to the UNC Board of Governors.
According to Chancellor Philip L. Dubois, the University’s most mission-critical items are enrollment funding, a proposal related to data science and business analytics and planning funds for a new science building.
“With the significant number of students enrolled this fall, we are requesting $7.1 million in enrollment funding,” said Dubois. “With higher demand for UNC Charlotte, we need adequate funding to support the necessary additional courses and both administrative and academic services for students.”
A second priority is funding for the Data Science and Business Analytics Initiatives, an interdisciplinary program modeled after the success of EPIC and developed with the collaboration of the University’s Belk College of Business, College of Computing and Informatics and College of Health and Human Services with industry partners in the retail, health care, financial services, technology and energy sectors. With the exponential growth of data, businesses need leaders who have the data science skills to understand analytics and the business knowledge to apply the data to the business mission. Dubois explained one implication of such a partnership is through the vast amount of existing health care data. “Improved analytics could lead to more targeted prevention, treatment and cost reductions in the field.”
The University also has requested $12 million in capital funding to plan a new science building. Existing, older facilities cannot be renovated or retrofitted cost effectively to produce the state-of-the-art labs necessary to ensure high-quality instruction in science disciplines.
The UNC Board of Governors will consider the University’s legislative priorities at its February meetings; those approved will be presented to the legislature for possible funding through the biennial budget, which begins July 1.