The Daily Bulletin Archive

As a follow-up to Vice President Barnum’s report at Friday’s College Senate meeting, I would like to provide the campus community with a brief update on the college’s budget rebalancing efforts.

During Friday’s meeting, we announced that our rebalancing efforts are ahead of schedule. In February 2018, the campus embarked on a three-year, $7 million rebalancing effort beginning with the 2017–2018 academic year. In year one, the goal was to reduce expenditures campuswide by $1.4 million, with $2.8 million reduction scheduled in years two (2018–2019) and three (2019–2020).

I am pleased to report that our two-year total projected revenue reduction is approximately $6.17 million, which is $1.97 million ahead of our two-year target of $4.2 million. While this is positive news and reflection of the collective efforts, sacrifices, and strategic thinking by the campus community to address our budget challenges, please know that our work and careful spending must continue.

The college will stay the course with the three-year budget rebalancing process. Cabinet members were asked on May 2 to provide a 2019–2020 rebalancing plan and reductions for their units by the end of this month.

Once our $7 million rebalancing goal is achieved, work will begin in earnest on a new campuswide Strategic Resource Planning Process to address an anticipated additional $2.4 million gap between revenue and expenses in 2020–2021. This budget gap is a result of a decline in tuition revenue following a drop in overall student enrollment last fall. An overview of the Strategic Resource Planning Process was provided at the February 8 College Senate meeting.

The budget rebalancing website will be updated later this week with information shared at Friday’s Senate meeting. Additionally, I intend to provide an update to the campus community this summer once VP area rebalancing plans are finalized.