This podcast contains comments from Texas A&M president Katherine Banks during the August 25, 2021 meeting of the board of regents finance committee.

The Texas A&M system board of regents approved budgets and new capital projects during their three day August meeting at the RELLIS campus.

The board spent the first day and a half hearing from 20 system executives. Among the presenters was the new president of the flagship campus, Katherine Banks.

She reported A&M is increasing the amount going towards deferred maintenance from $22 million to $30 million a year.

Banks asked for a $20 million dollar renovation of the Doherty building, and she said the Mays business school is expanding, with funding for the $74 million project in part from financial assistance from private gifts.

Dr. Banks also reported this fall's projected enrollment on the main campus is 67,150. That's an increase of 730...or just over one percent...compared to last fall. She said says the number of domestic students applying and who are enrolled in graduate school are up from a year ago, there is a 20 percent decline in the number of international students, and there is a continued emphasis on recruiting minority students.

Copy and paste the following link to read and download the Texas A&M fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, provided by the A&M system: https://wtaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/bor082521BudgetTAMU.pd

Additional information from the Texas A&M system:

The Texas A&M University System’s Board of Regents on Thursday approved a $9.6 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2022 and added $551.5 million in new projects to the System’s five-year capital plan.

The new operating budget represents a 53 percent increase although most of the additional money is federal “pass-through” dollars managed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the System’s newest state agency.

Excluding this and the additional federal support provided by the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), the A&M System’s day-to-day operations increased 7 percent over the current year. That 7 percent figure includes additional state appropriations and an increase in research funding.

The new five-year capital plan totals more than $1.9 billion, with almost $1.4 billion of previously approved projects that are either in design or under construction.

The $551.5 million in possible future projects, pending the Board’s final approval of each project, includes:

• Exterior renovation of the Academic Building at Texas A&M
• Phase II of The Gardens at Texas A&M
• Dock improvements at the Texas A&M’s Galveston campus
• Parking garage at Tarleton State University
• Dorm renovation at West Texas A&M
• Student Services Building and recreation center expansion at Texas A&M-Commerce
• Renovations to the Borlaug Southern Crop Improvement Center, AgriLife Research
• Nuclear Engineering Education Building for Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• Physical plant projects and equipment replacement at various campuses and agencies