2008 Woodie Awards
University tweaks budget following lower enrollment
Ruby Karamitros
Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: News
An unexpected drop in enrollment left Southwest Baptist University officials scrambling to adjust budgets for the 2007-2008 fiscal year and refocus recruiting efforts for the 2008-2009 academic year, SBU President Dr. C. Pat Taylor told a meeting of faculty and staff Wednesday.
With 40 fewer students than expected this semester, the University is adjusting its spending plans to maintain a balanced budget.
The Bolivar campus is down 21 students, or 315 credit hours, from spring 2007. The planned budget had been based on having about 20 more students.
The decline is explained in part by a higher than normal number of December graduates as well as greater than normal attrition among non-graduating students.
While having 40 fewer students than anticipated cost about $300,000 in the budget, other factors ranging from interest rates to utilities impact the budget both positively and negatively, said Taylor.
Planned faculty and staff equity raises totaling $200,000 were casualties of the lower than expected enrollment numbers and other factors, but an across-the-board two percent raise is still planned for March 1.
Not all the news on enrollment figures was bad news. Deposits for next fall are ahead of last year's pace.
The University has set a goal of enrolling 475 freshmen in the fall 2008 semester. If the goal is met, it would be largest freshman class in SBU history.
News of the enrollment figures came in a faculty and staff forum following the Board of Trustees spring meeting.
At the meeting, trustees approved plans to improve the entrance to the University, granted tenure or promotion to 19 faculty members and voted to confer three honorary doctorates.
Trustees unanimously approved a project to improve the main entrance to the University along Springfield Ave.
The project will be named for former SBU president Jim Sells, who died Nov. 25, 2007.
"The lead gift has been secured," said Taylor.
Taylor told faculty and staff that a single entrance directly in front of the Sells Administration Center would replace the current north and south entrances on Springfield Ave.
With 40 fewer students than expected this semester, the University is adjusting its spending plans to maintain a balanced budget.
The Bolivar campus is down 21 students, or 315 credit hours, from spring 2007. The planned budget had been based on having about 20 more students.
The decline is explained in part by a higher than normal number of December graduates as well as greater than normal attrition among non-graduating students.
While having 40 fewer students than anticipated cost about $300,000 in the budget, other factors ranging from interest rates to utilities impact the budget both positively and negatively, said Taylor.
Planned faculty and staff equity raises totaling $200,000 were casualties of the lower than expected enrollment numbers and other factors, but an across-the-board two percent raise is still planned for March 1.
Not all the news on enrollment figures was bad news. Deposits for next fall are ahead of last year's pace.
The University has set a goal of enrolling 475 freshmen in the fall 2008 semester. If the goal is met, it would be largest freshman class in SBU history.
News of the enrollment figures came in a faculty and staff forum following the Board of Trustees spring meeting.
At the meeting, trustees approved plans to improve the entrance to the University, granted tenure or promotion to 19 faculty members and voted to confer three honorary doctorates.
Trustees unanimously approved a project to improve the main entrance to the University along Springfield Ave.
The project will be named for former SBU president Jim Sells, who died Nov. 25, 2007.
"The lead gift has been secured," said Taylor.
Taylor told faculty and staff that a single entrance directly in front of the Sells Administration Center would replace the current north and south entrances on Springfield Ave.
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