University of Idaho vice president of finance and administration Brian Foisy said before Faculty Senate Tuesday that the university could be moving towards a “strategic hiring plan,” involving not replacing some vacant positions, to deal with budget shortfalls.
He said that means if a position is vacant it will be scrutinized by the Provost’s office and they will determine if that position needs to be refilled or if other faculty or staff can fill that position. He predicts this method will result in approximately $4 million dollars recovered over the next two fiscal years.
Foisy said for the past nine years enrollment and budget revenue has fallen short of what was projected. Foisy said the university must change its spending practices because of this.
He added that previous budget shortfalls left there there is no longer enough money saved up to make up for these differences.
This fiscal year, the university operated at a $1.1 million deficit in the general education fund, which is nearly $280 million.
The general fund’s main revenue source is tuition and it pays for most of the institutions, faculty members, and staff at the university.
If no changes are made, Foisy predicts a $5 million deficit in 2019 and 2020. That number is a result of low enrollment numbers and $2.9 million in one-time payments to delegated to the University Budget and Finance Committee.
Foisy announced a plan he hopes will begin to alleviate this problem in future years. Starting with the 2020 fiscal year, he hopes to put aside an undetermined amount of money for three funds.
He wants to designate a fund for the University Budget and Finance Committee. This budget would be used to address the one-time payments for renovations and replacements that the University has to deal with every year. Also, it would mean that money would not need to be taken from other institutions on campus, as it will be in a fund specifically designated for this purpose.
Additionally, he hopes to implement an “enrollment contingency” fund. Foisy said the idea behind this is that if enrollment continue to decrease then the university will have a back up fund that can be used to pay the difference any loss in enrollment might cause. Foisy said this will stop the university from operating “on the bleeding edge” where difference between one or two students enrolling can mean a significant financial problem.
The final fund Foisy wants to create is a fund for presidential initiatives. In the past, he said the president’s office has taken the hits for the decreasing enrollment to the point that now there is virtually no money that the president can use to implement changes at the university. Foisy said this is a problem particularly now because of the ongoing search to replace president Chuck Staben, whose contract expires in June.
“No president is going to want to come to this university because when they get here we will have to tell them ‘I hope you didn’t bring any dreams or aspirations’ because they won’t have any money to get things done,” Foisy said.
Foisy mentioned another way the university is going to attempt to recover money in the coming years is through a “strategic hiring plan”.
Foisy ended his presentation by assuring everyone in attendance that this plan did not mean there would be any mandatory lay offs and added playfully that the sky is not falling.
Gavin Green can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @gavingreenphoto.