DATE: Thursday, May 15, 1997                TAG: 9705150513

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                   LENGTH:   36 lines

U.VA. PROPOSES BUDGET OF $1 BILLION

University of Virginia officials on Wednesday proposed the school's first $1 billion budget.

``This is a milestone year,'' Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., the school's executive vice president, told the board of visitors' finance committee.

The proposed budget for the 1997-98 fiscal year, which begins July 1, calls for spending slightly less than $1.05 billion, a 5.3 percent increase over the current year. The proposal includes $7.9 million for state-funded raises averaging 5 percent for faculty and 4 percent for staff.

Also included is about $3 million in private funds that would increase faculty raises an additional 2 percent as part of the school's plan to make professors' pay more competitive.

The proposed budget also has nearly $6 million to reconfigure the school's massive computer network to prevent problems at the year 2000. Most computers read only the last two numbers of a date. When the year 2000 is entered into computers, they will malfunction unless they are reprogrammed, according to computer experts.

The proposed budget must be approved by the finance committee and the board of visitors. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

TO COMPARE

The university's proposal exceeds the $961 million operating

budget passed Tuesday by Virginia Beach, the state's most populous

city. KEYWORDS: UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA BUDGET

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