Enrollment shortfall puts squeeze on tight budget

A revised general fund budget will be presented to the board of trustees in December.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A lower-than-anticipated fall enrollment will tighten the squeeze on a Youngstown State University general fund budget already hit hard by employee raises that came in higher than planned.
Official enrollment numbers released by the university show a total student full- and part-time head count of 12,812, down from the 13,101 enrolled at this time last year.
A more important number, for budget purposes, is the full-time equivalent enrollment.
The university said that number is 10,332.
82 students short
However, the $131 million general fund budget is based on an FTE, or full-time enrollment, of 10,414 this year, 82 more than YSU ended up with.
One FTE generates about $7,500 on an annual basis (two semesters plus summer school) which means the general fund could experience a revenue shortfall of more than $600,000.
"It makes a tight situation even tighter, but it's not an insurmountable problem if other university expenditures are managed throughout the year," said John Habat, YSU vice president for administration.
Why the decline?
The university is examining why enrollment dropped when it was expected to increase. Strikes by both YSU faculty and classified union employees just before the start of fall classes have been suggested as one explanation.
The enrollment numbers follow a university projection that employee raises recently negotiated or pending will cost YSU about $3.5 million in increased costs this year, $1.5 million more than was set aside for that purpose in the general fund budget.
Habat said some potential budget transfers have been identified to cover those additional costs and the revenue shortfall. However, those transfers will limit some other activities the university wanted to pursue, he said.
He declined to be specific about how money will be moved around or what programs might be affected, saying he needs to present that first to the university's board of trustees.
The details will be found in a modified budget to be presented to the trustees in December, he said. The budget is modified every year at that time to reflect actual enrollment numbers, he said.
Funding sources
The university gets its funds from two basic sources -- the state of Ohio and tuition.
Habat said YSU is already projecting a drop in state funding next year, based on the state's biennial budget.
That leaves tuition as the only additional source of revenue, he said, stopping short of predicting further tuition increases.
YSU has raised tuition in each of the past eight years and it now stands at just over $6,300 per year for full-time, in-state undergraduates.
Bob McGovern, YSU student government president, said he and others were told by the university administration that further annual tuition increases will be needed to pay for employee wage increases in the three-year contracts negotiated this fall.
He said a plan is being put together for students from across the state to push the legislature to increase aid to higher education in the next state budget, a move that could help control tuition increases.