Despite budget cuts, the University may be “slightly better off” financially in the 2013 fiscal year than in 2012, University President Michael Adams said in a briefing earlier today.

Adams said one of his main priorities this year will be to make sure the University receives full formula funding from the Board of Regents.

Formula funding takes an institution’s student enrollment into account, as well as its number of programs and building square footage to determine how much funding each institution will receive.

For fiscal year 2012, the University received a $16 million decrease in formula money from the Board of Regents, and it received no formula enrollment growth money at all.

Additionally, a proposed $35.3 million in teaching program budget cuts was reported for the University System of Georgia for 2013, according to Gov. Nathan Deal’s Budget Report earlier this month. The program has already experienced about $340 million in funding cuts since 2009, according to the report.

But Adams said this year would be better.

He said an estimated $7 million or about 2 percent of the University’s teaching program will be cut, but said this was the smallest cut of the past three.

“We’re hopeful if we get full funding of formula, we could get as many as $10 [million] back,” Adams said.

To adjust to previous budget cuts, the University reduced its full-time faculty by about 80 members and hired more part-time professors, also cutting back by about 70 student assistants.

Adams said if possible, his priority is to secure raises for current faculty members before hiring anyone else but mentioned no further decrease in staffing at this time.

Faculty health insurance premiums will likely go up, but the University portion of the increase is still unknown, Adams said. Still, the state premium has risen about 5 percent.

Last year, the Regents increased premiums by 5 to 8 percent in order to cover the rising state premiums.

Despite a difficult financial period for the USG, University donations exceeded $120 million, making last year one of the biggest fundraising years in history. For the past six years, donations had remained at about $100 million, Adams said.

Last year also marked the second largest number of donors in history, with more than 55,000 people donating to the University and an annual fund increase of 10 to 12 percent. The rise in the number of donors could mean an increase in donations from younger, less established alumni, Adams said.

“It’s quite a compelling story, especially in the current economic environment,” he said.

Adams referred to the new buildings as “game-changing facilities” but said he hopes to be sensitive to concerns about the University overemphasizing the importance of new buildings on campus.