Nicholls will face at least $800,000 of budget reductions this year, University President Stephen Hulbert predicts.Preliminarily, the administration has made approximately $800,000 of decisions to defer filling faculty and other staff positions. However, he said it will be necessary to make additional cuts once the University finds out the full scope of the budget implications based on state appropriations against University revenues through tuition, fees and other sources.
“We’re not going to finalize any decisions until we receive instructions from the state, Board of Regents and Universities of Louisiana System,” Hulbert said. “I will be calling together the President’s Cabinet and other representatives from student government, faculty senate and unclassified and classified staff to discuss budget matters and reach a conclusion for a sufficient financial plan.”
Hulbert said the initial discussion, which was among the deans, provost and assistant provost, centered around positions the University could consider not filling for the upcoming year. Many were vacant positions, which he said mainly affect new and developing programs that Nicholls does not have the resources to fund.
“The initial series of decisions involve the fact that we cannot simply continue to fill positions with the level of risk the University faces, so some positions we must consider deferring ($800,000 of instructional and staff positions),” he explained. “As we enter the next phase we’re going to have to make budget cuts based on instructions from the state and what we determine the final gap to be in resources. It will affect all areas of University spending.”
Hulbert did not discuss the specific severity of the cuts or what areas will be most affected, emphasizing that the committee will analyze which cuts will have the least impact on the campus.
“The phase of budget review we’re going to enter into definitely has significant implications to the institution,” he said. “Nicholls doesn’t have resources larger universities have to face a financial downturn like this.”
In a letter sent to 24 state legislators in Nicholls’ service region, Hulbert wrote that the University’s anticipated expenditures over revenue was $2,975,165. He said this has been a result of the yearly increases in unfunded mandatory costs and other operating budget critical needs.
Unfunded mandatory costs increase include increases in civil service employee merits, group health insurance for active and retired employees, employer retirement contributions and civil service agency fees. The state funded approximately 50 percent of Nicholls’ mandated increases of $1,541,011.
The remaining 50 percent is funded by the 3 percent tuition increase for students and from last year’s 1.75 percent University budget cut implemented by Governor Kathleen Blanco’s administration. Hulbert said the University was told that this approximately $400,000 cut from last year’s budget resources is coming back to Nicholls through the ULS.
However, Hulbert said the state has not considered the wide range of yearly increases universities face as more funding is required for salary and compensation increases, scholarship increases, supplies and materials, equipment and even the price of gasoline among other resources which have increased in cost.
Hulbert said preparing for the selective admission standards of 2005 and accreditation has also had an effect on the budget. For example, about $800,000 more was spent in scholarships to recruit better students in response to the new standards. “These are categories of expenditures that the state hasn’t recognized to fund, so when you make that decision (to increase scholarships), you have to cut the budget elsewhere.”
Hulbert said the enrollment decline won’t be as large as expected. The University is not even anticipating the last projection of 120 to 125 fewer freshmen due to summer bridge and other programs.
Next spring, Nicholls will go before the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for the overall University accreditation, but departments across campus have been completing individual accreditation processes over the past three to five years.
“The University and academic program and faculty have faced extraordinary success but that’s not without cost in the hiring of faculty, resources and support of accreditation and renovation of facilities and classrooms.”
Hulbert said he believes there needs to be a thorough review of the budget needs of universities in the legislature, which shouldn’t simply be focused on unfunded mandates.
“I believe that unless the state is able to appropriate resources in support of the universities at a level that is more consistent with the southern region average, there is no question in my mind that tuition will continue to go up,” he said. “It’s either that or we cut academic programs and services, and the students see less of a quality set of programs across the two- and four-year public universities. However, I am very optimistic about the future of Nicholls; this is just a road block.
