Last month Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue approved the state’s 2008 budget, which will pour $75.6 million of additional funding into the University.

The University has announced that it will allocate much of the extra revenue for as many as 68 faculty additions – some new and others to replace those lost in the state’s budget cuts from the last few years.

The budget will allow for 48 new teachers for freshman and sophmore classes. Seven individuals will be hired to work in disease prevention, also control and research.

The University’s healthcare programs will get a boost as well, with three new faculty and three new graduate assistants hired for
the new College of Public Health.

The College of Pharmacy will receive $37.2 million earmarked for its upcoming expansion, which is slated to begin this fall.

The Medical College of Georgia expansion was included in the state’s budget. Legislators set aside $3.3 million.

Though the budget doesn’t name a site for the expansion, the Board of Regents and the University are planning for the money to fund a medical campus at the Navy Supply Corps School on Prince Avenue, which will be vacated in 2011, said Tom Jackson, the University’s vice president for public affairs.

The budget increases will aid in the University’s partnerships throughout Georgia.

The University campus at Griffin will nab $1.3 million for growth and expansion.

The College of Veterinary Medicine will also take home $1 million – an amount matching the private funding it has already received – to continue its partnership with the Georgia Aquarium.

The additional funding, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2008, is proof of the end of a state fiscal downturn that has caused a decrease in the University’s funding over the past few years, Jackson said.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had additional revenue,” Jackson said.