Remarks by President Kimmich on Budget and Enrollment
September 16, 2005
Dear Colleagues, Students, and Friends,
At the Stated Meeting of the Faculty earlier this week, I spoke about the priorities for the year ahead. As we move forward to implement our plans, we need to bear in mind some essential realities: the state of the budget and the level of our enrollment.
Here's where we stand on these matters as we begin the new academic year:
I. Budget
Breaking with past practice this year, the State adopted the budget for 2005-06 "on time"—on 1 April. That budget provides the senior colleges of The City University with an overall increase of $94.7 million, most of it allocated by the Governor but with supplements from the Legislature. The increase is to cover prospective collective bargaining, fringe benefits, and energy costs. This increase notwithstanding, the senior colleges will face a shortfall of more than $30 million.
To close this budget gap, the University Board of Trustees, at its June meeting, adopted a comprehensive business plan requiring increases in graduate and non-degree student tuition; increases in select fees; increased revenues through enrollment growth; expansion of the CUNY productivity initiative; and college savings through reductions in discretionary spending. As a result, the University could discontinue the practice of holding back 2% of the senior college budgets, as it had done in the previous two years. That's the good news.
Not so good is the 2005-06 base budget allocation the College received in mid-August. The base budget covers our everyday expenses: salaries, adjuncts and college assistants, maintenance and supplies. It comes to $81 million, a tiny increase from last year, to which are added some lump sums for specific, restricted purposes. Of that sum, we are expected to raise about 75% (some $59.8 million) ourselves, with revenues coming from the various sources identified in the University's business plan (mentioned above) but primarily from tuition and fees.
Last year, as some of you may recall, our budget was such that we had to stop purchasing supplies in May. Expenses are up this year, largely because of our hiring, and the outlook is darker than any we've seen for some time. The base budget allocation falls short—by a significant amount—of what the College needs to get through the year. Our goal this year must be to increase enrollment, by both recruiting and retaining more students. We must make intelligent use of existing resources, contain costs where we can, and look for savings. Even so, we will probably come close to exhausting the reserves we have built up over the last few years. That's not good news for the year after this.
II. Enrollment
We have every reason to be pleased with the quality of incoming students, and we can take some satisfaction in the growth of enrollment compared to last year. As of 15 September, total enrollment for the fall semester stood at 15,183 students—169 (or 1.13%) more than last year at this time. Undergraduate student enrollment has grown by nearly 3% all told; undergraduate transfer students have gone up by 4%. Graduate students are down somewhat, attributable to a small decline in returning students and, as is true also of our undergraduates, a drop-off in non-degree students, especially those in our off-campus programs. Some of the decline may be attributable to the increase in graduate tuition.
These numbers, overall, are welcome. What's worrisome to us is that we're short of the number we need to meet our budget. We will be exploring new recruitment strategies, both on the undergraduate and the graduate levels, while doing everything to strengthen retention. I know the College can count on your help.
Sincerely,
Christoph M. Kimmich
