Maine
Low enrollment at Maine’s universities leads to $5M budget gap
The bottom enrollment in current reminiscence is forcing Maine’s public universities to shut a $5 million hole of their present price range and setting them up for an “exceedingly worrisome” monetary image subsequent yr, in line with the College of Maine System’s lead trustee.
Closing the hole implies that universities throughout the system might be compelled to maintain some vacant educating positions open, dig into aid and reserve funds, and develop extra focused advertising to drive up the variety of switch college students within the spring.
The College of Maine System earlier this yr anticipated a 4 p.c lower in enrollment, however the official scholar depend on Oct. 15 was down 5 p.c from final fall, representing a decline of about 1,000 college students. This fall’s enrollment throughout the state’s seven universities is 24,808 college students.
The system has up to now been capable of maneuver via this yr’s spherical of price range modifications, however subsequent yr will seemingly be a tough price range season, Trish Riley, chair of the college system’s board of trustees, stated Wednesday throughout a gathering of the board’s finance, amenities and expertise committee.
“I believe what we’re taking a look at in ’24 is exceedingly worrisome,” she stated.
The price range deficits — that are bigger than the system initially predicted — will hit every of the college system’s campuses in a different way, with essentially the most important results being felt at smaller campuses.
The College of Maine at Augusta, Fort Kent and Presque Isle and the College of Southern Maine are dealing with a mixed deficit of $5.4 million, in line with knowledge introduced at Wednesday’s assembly.
The College of Maine Fort Kent’s deficit equals 11 p.c of its complete price range, president Deborah Hedeen stated.
Ryan Low, the college system’s vice chancellor for finance, stated the system anticipated to need to make some budgetary changes, however that they’re nonetheless tough to make.
“It’s at all times difficult whenever you’re in a discount mode. There aren’t tons of choices, however we really feel like we’ve carried out a reasonably good job of addressing 2023,” Low stated. “Nevertheless it actually means our 2024 price range improvement, we’re anticipating that to be a problem.”
In Fort Kent, Hedeen stated the college has held off on filling some college positions and can use about $800,000 in COVID-19 aid funds to fill the hole.
Equally, the College of Southern Maine will dig into the $1 million in COVID aid funds it has left. USM additionally expects some budgetary aid from the truth that its dorms are greater than 100% full, which brings in extra room and board income.
The College of Maine at Augusta plans a extra aggressive advertising marketing campaign to attraction to spring switch college students in hopes of constructing up enrollment, and income, losses within the subsequent semester.