NEWS: COVID-19
I T H A C A C O L L E G E C O M M U N I T Y FA C E S B U D G E T C U T S A N D E N R O L L M E N T C H A N G E S D U R I N G PA N D E M I C
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BY LORIEN TYNE
he Ithaca College community adjusted both to the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the college’s budget and the changes implemented as part of the Ithaca Forever strategic plan to create a more sustainable budget. The college formally began the process of implementing the Ithaca Forever strategic plan in October 2019. The goals of the plan are to proactively address the national issue of declining student enrollment and to create a budget that matches the new demographics. The plan was launched before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated the rollout of changes. The pandemic caused a decrease in the college’s operating budget. The college’s operating expenses for fiscal year 2021 dropped to $188,656,855 from $231,452,699 in 2020. The budget for fiscal year 2022 is currently set at $222,276,717. The college previously asked departments to cut their budgets for the 2019–20 fiscal year because of anticipated lower enrollment numbers. Tim Downs, vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer, said the college is a tuition-dependent institution and room and board make approximately 90% of the net operating revenue. Tuition for the 2021–22 academic year is $46,610 on top of the $6,868 standard meal plan and a double room cost of $8,976. Former President Shirley M. Collado said she wanted to move the college away from relying on tuition because of lower enrollment. During the State of the College meeting Oct. 5, Downs said the total revenue from tuition and room and board was $211,472,084 in 2019, $190,142,130 in 2020 and $137,978,111 in 2021. The total revenue for tuition and room and board for the 2022 fiscal year is expected to be $182,240,632. Downs said in an interview that the college is keeping costs for tuition and room and board the same for the 2021–22 academic year, as well as reducing meal plan costs by continuing to insource the dining program. He said that decreasing enrollment was an issue before the pandemic but that the rise in students deferring and taking gap years during the 2020–21 academic year resulted in a longer-lasting financial impact. According to the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research (AIR), 1,100 freshmen were enrolled in Fall 2020, which was 578 fewer than in Fall 2019. Overall, AIR reports that the college had a total of 6,266 students enrolled in Fall 2019 and 5,354 students in Fall 2020. For Fall 2021, there were 5,239 students enrolled. “If we didn’t match the budget with student enrollment revenue and kept the expenses the same, we’d be running at a considerable operating
deficit every year and we just can’t do that,” Downs there used to be, so it is fine if the capital budget is said. “After a number of years, we would have to close lowered. She said ordinarily she prepares a budget projection in the fall and another in the late spring, our doors.” The operating deficit for fiscal year 2020 but in the past year, she said she has done 13 different was $3,446,240 and the deficit for the 2021 fiscal projections, decreasing the budget each time. Wikoff said she is more concerned about the loss year was $10,282,639. The deficit for 2022 is expected to be $2,135,185. The operating deficit of other resources, mainly employees. She said the liaccounts for the total expenses the college has in brary had 27 employees at the beginning of 2020 and a fiscal year subtracted by the amount of now it has 20. “Some of the positions that were eliminated, it was total revenue. As a part of the strategic plan, the college im- the right call,” Wikoff said. “On the other hand, with plemented the Academic Program Prioritization some of the positions that were eliminated, we are still process. The Shape of the College document outlines trying to sort out what they did and who will do it now.” Junior Ellen Chapman is a student managthe specific cuts that have been and will continue to be made, including 116 full-time equivalent fac- er for the library and said the number of library ulty positions, as well as 26 major, department and work-study positions offered has decreased from previous years. She said this has impacted accessibility for program eliminations. Downs said more faculty cuts will happen over students wanting to use library space and services. “The library used to be open all day most days, so the next couple of years, mostly through attrition, meaning if faculty retire or resign they may not you could show up to the library whenever you wanted,” Chapman said. “Now, there are so many times be replaced. Downs said the administration is continu- when it opens and closes, [that] even though I work ously looking for opportunities to reduce annual here, I don’t totally know.” Campus members have made repeated comments expenditures beyond faculty and program cuts by restructuring the college. He said that so far some about the overall lack of communication about the of these opportunities have included insourcing strategic plan and related changes, as well as their conservices, restructuring majors and departments, fusion about budget cuts related to COVID-19. “I am hoping we can help dispel some of the reorganizing the responsibilities of staff and faculty, adjusting vendor services and virtualizing mystery or mystique around this because there are a lot of things changing and a lot of things going hardware servers. “On top of the strategic plan implementation, on and people may start to connect things that are the impact of COVID caused the institution to not necessarily connected and say ‘that must be behave to make some short-term cuts to minimize the cause of expense cuts,’ and most times they’re not,” effect of the pandemic,” Downs said via email. “These Downs said. reductions included no pay increases for two years, the reduction of retirement plan contributions and the delay of capital plan investments. For the long-term health of Ithaca College, these cuts will be restored over the next few years.” Interim librarian Karin Wikoff, who has worked at the college since 2004, said the department has needed to find ways to reduce expenses and shift money around because of its limited budget during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the budget is starting to recover from the pandemic’s effect on revenue. Wikoff said the library’s capital budget for physical materials was approximately $400,000 before the pandemic, and, during the 2020–21 academic year, dropped to zero. She said this fall semester it rose to approximately $60,000 for the fiscal year. Wikoff said there is less student Tim Downs, vice president for finance and administration and chief financial demand for physical materials than officer speaks Oct. 5, 2021, in the Emerson Suites. Ash Bailot/The Ithacan
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