4 -



programs going, and the administration continues to recruit into those positions, it is certainly the
expectation to meet or even exceed this goal.

       We were pleased to jump three points in the six-year graduation measure this last year.
UK has exceeded its goal. Before we change that goal, we are probably going to wait and see
what happens with this next measure point. If you look across the state, UK is the largest
institution with the best graduation rate. We need really to start comparing ourselves to our Top
20 counterparts. There is work to be done. These were the goals that we set for CPE a couple of
years ago, and we have exceeded the expectations from CPE.

       President Todd also reviewed some other goals that UK has met or on which we have
made progress. He mentioned the six-year graduation rate, the NSSE results, and the post-
doctoral enrollment as three indictors for which the goals have been achieved.

       He noted that UK does have two goals showing little or no progress. One of those is the
first to second year retention rate. UK went down from 79 percent, which is the highest in the
state, to 77 percent. This happened the year after increasing the freshman class from about 3,000
to 3,700.

       President Todd said that he would like to know what happened to those who did not
return to the University; therefore, some money has been spent to buy a database which tracks
where students go to college. We are now beginning to get the data to see which students
dropped out of school or went to another college. Some money is also going into UK's Survey
Research Center on campus to call these students. We expect to try to analyze this 2 percent
drop and get enough data to solve the problem.

       The other goal is doctoral degree enrollment and production. The enrollment has actually
increased, but the degree production has fallen off. That is an area that we need to target.

       President Todd said that this presentation is an update so the Board will know where the
University is in measuring its goals at this point.

       President Todd said that he would like to mention one other point about the tuition rate
that has taken place since the last Board meeting. In trying to establish the tuition rate increase,
estimates were made concerning increasing coal costs, increasing health benefits, and salary
increases which were targeted at 2 percent. The financial sheet showed that an additional $6
million was needed to hit the bottom line. The budgeting process was still in progress, and by
going through the units, $3 million was found to help the situation. It was then necessary to
make a choice of either giving a 2 percent raise and reducing some staff and faculty positions or
giving a 1 percent raise and stopping the budget cuts at that point. Based on the advice received,
a decision was made to give a 1 percent raise to employees. He pointed out that about $5.6
million was put into health care to hold the health care cost flat, which is significant, especially
for those employees on the lower end of the pay scale. This has been a commitment. It is really
a partnership with the faculty, staff, and retirees - the less the University has to spend on health
care, the more it has to do other things within the University.