(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Drake University plans to cut faculty positions, programs to balance budget deficit [1]
['Brooklyn Draisey', 'More From Author', '- November']
Date: 2023-11-24
Drake University is planning to make cuts to its academic programs and other areas of university operations as it grapples with a budget deficit in the millions.
Provost Sue Mattison announced the plans at a recent faculty senate meeting. According to a draft of meeting minutes, she pointed to the university’s operating budget as the main cause of deficits, with a balance sheet boasting significant assets and low debt.
All units of the university have made budget cuts to lower the deficit, including non-personnel expenses that have curtailed professional development and travel opportunities. Planned investment in nursing and other new programs and efforts to bring more students to the university through admissions efforts will help bring in more revenue, the minutes stated, but they won’t overcome the deficit.
“Considering enrollment challenges across the country … the cuts that have already been made, and the cuts we plan to make, we are at the point where we have to cut academic programs,” the minutes stated. “This will start with a streamlining of the curriculum and a reduction of adjuncts and overloads.”
The fiscal year 2024 budget included a deficit of $4.3 million. Taking away one-time funding that won’t be available next year and adding back in expenses that had been temporarily reduced, though in reality they won’t all go back up, the deficit the university faces is $10.3 million, Drake University President Marty Martin said in the meeting. This is the number they need to reduce to zero by fiscal year 2026, according to the minutes.
Drake University’s Board of Trustees will set the fiscal year 2025 budget deficit in January, the meeting minutes stated. Staff and non-personnel expenses will be cut in order to reach the lowered deficit amount, and nearly $3 million in cuts from those areas were made for fiscal year 2024. Many of those cuts were temporary, and staff positions and offices will be evaluated for reorganization where needed.
The gap from the fiscal year 2025 number to $10.3 million is what the university is trying to fill, Martin said, and much of it will be through permanent reductions.
The Faculty Senate Budget Committee created a draft report of criteria for evaluating programs, which was anticipated to be discussed by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee Nov. 15 and is expected to be the basis of the senate’s Dec. 6 meeting, according to the minutes.
Academic chairs have been called on to make four-year schedules of course offerings, tighten curriculum and eliminate “most adjuncts, overloads, and under-enrolled sections,” according to the minutes. Adjunct faculty with expertise vital to curriculum can remain, but through the curriculum revamps many will be eliminated. Last year, $1.5 million was spent on adjunct faculty salaries and benefits.
It’s unclear which programs and positions will see the most changes as of yet, but Mattison said once recommendations about faculty and programs from the Faculty Senate Budget Committee and Faculty Senate are given, she, Martin, and college deans will create a plan and present it to faculty.
From there, faculty will have a 30-day period to provide input and discussion. Mattison said she expects this to take place by the end of January. The plan presented to the Board of Trustees in January will be more macro-level, Martin said, but will help in better specifying the goals the university needs to meet.
Several groups will be involved in forming a plan to share with the Board of Trustees, including the Faculty Senate and its budget and executive committees, academic chairs, faculty and more. According to the minutes, Mattison said in the meeting that she’s committed to transparency and communication through this process, and getting input from faculty and university governance to “ensure decisions are defensible to the entire university community.”
“The goal is that Drake be strong and relevant ten years, fifty years, and a hundred years from now,” the minutes stated. “As such, the status quo is not an option, and eliminating programs and faculty lines is unavoidable.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/11/24/drake-university-plans-to-cut-faculty-positions-programs-to-balance-budget-deficit/
Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/
