Penn State President Graham Spanier will appear before the state Legislature in Harrisburg next Wednesday to request increased state appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year.

Spanier will request that Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed appropriations, announced Feb. 2, be increased from $314.77 million to the 2001-02 level of $344.8 million.

Although the proposed appropriations for 2004-05 would be a 2.3 percent increase from last year, the university feels additional funds are needed.

"We asked for more but are happy that we are seeing the first proposed increase in several years, instead of a cut," Spanier stated in a press release issued yesterday.

University spokesman Steve MacCarthy said the university appreciates the increase, but more funds are needed.

"While we're grateful it's the first increase in three years, it falls short of what the university really needs," he said.

University spokesman Bill Mahon said Spanier will present his best case next week about the "huge positive impact" Penn State has on Pennsylvania.

Mahon highlighted some of the points Spanier will discuss during his appearance before the state House and Senate.

"The university creates thousands of jobs, provides a half a billion dollars in research funding, has an impact on every county in the state and educates more Pennsylvanians than any other university," he said.

MacCarthy said Spanier's proposed appropriations increase means that tuition for Pennsylvania residents would not increase beyond the standard 4 percent. However, he added that if the state fails to provide the university with additional funds, tuition will be increased at a greater percentage.

"The net effect is, if we can't get it from the state, the only source is tuition," MacCarthy said.

Mahon also said the university would have to increase tuition if additional funds from the state are not granted.

"There have been five cuts in the past two and a half years," Mahon said. "Because of those cuts, there are not a lot of options. We can cut quality or increase tuition, and we will not cut quality."

During his appearance, Spanier will also request additional funding for the College of Medicine.

According to the press release, Penn State is ranked last in state appropriations for public colleges of medicine in the United States, receiving less than $5 million from the state this year.

Sean Young, director of strategic services at the College of Medicine, said the college's need for additional funding goes beyond improving its reputation.

"It's not simply that we're the lowest funded public medical school," he said. "It's important to fund us because it's an excellent benefit to the state."

Young said more funds would benefit Pennsylvania's economy and overall quality of healthcare.

"Obviously, the greater the state funding, the greater our ability to invest clinical enterprise dollars into new equipment, recruitment and retention of employees, and clinical research," he said.

Yesterday's press release cited a recent economic survey, which reported that the College of Medicine generated 13,520 jobs, both directly and indirectly, for the state.

Young said for every primary-care physician the College of Medicine sends into the work force, the state saves $1.6 million by "preventing emergency room visits and practicing preventive medicine."

MacCarthy said he hopes Spanier will convince the Legislature to increase funding.

"He's always done a superb job in presenting the university's case to the Legislature," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to make the point that [additional] funds are needed to help boost Penn State's reputation."

MacCarthy said the university hopes the 2004-05 budget will be decided sooner than the 2003-04 budget, which was not announced until late December 2003.

"The budget ran so long this year," he said. "Coming into an election year, we hope the budget will come in a much more timely manner."