Texas Tech Board of Regents to Consider 2014 Budgets Thursday

Texas Tech’s Board of Regents will meet this week to approve a number of items for the upcoming year.

The Board of Regents will meet in Lubbock on Thursday, August 8^th and Friday, August 9^th, and will consider approval of the upcoming fiscal year budgets.

The Board is required to approve the itemized operating budgets for fiscal year 2014 for Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University System Administration, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, and Angelo State University on or before September 1^st, 2013.

The budgets have been prepared on funds appropriated by the 83^rd Texas Legislature, including estimated local income.

Texas Tech has not yet released the FY 2014 budgets. For FY 2013, Texas Tech University’s operating budget expenditures was more than $732 million, funded by estimated income more nearly $724 million and prior year fund balances of more than $8 million.

The Board will also consider approval of a revised core curriculum to comply with Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board requirements. Due to substantial changes from the coordinating board, Texas Tech decided to completely revise their core curriculum.

The result of the complete revision is a list of 154 courses, including eight science laboratory classes, and a more focused core curriculum than the 289 classes that are currently in the curriculum. The revised core is also comprised only of freshman and sophomore courses, which are non-specialized and more suitable for the preferred generalized approach for a core curriculum.

Also to be considered by the Board is the establishment of an online Doctor of Philosophy degree in Educational Leadership within Tech’s College of Education.

No state in Texas offers an online Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, though Lamar University offers an online Ed.D. in the field. The degree would be added to several online and blended graduate programs at the doctoral level offered by Texas Tech.

The first portion of the Board of Regents meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Matador Room on the second floor of the Student Union Building at 15^th Street and Akron Avenue.