Enrollment up for fall and winter semesters; tuition hikes still loom

Rob Kohrman, associate vice president of the office of budget, planning and analysis, announced during today’s Wayne State Board of Governors meeting that WSU’s fall 2009 enrollment was up 3 percent over budget at nearly 32,000 students.

Winter 2010 enrollment was up an estimated 2 percent over budget, with the estimated undergraduate headcount for the winter semester projected to be at a 10-year high, Kohrman said.

While the numbers were reassuring to the Board that Wayne State is retaining and accruing new students, the state’s inevitable budget cuts to appropriations for higher education were also at the forefront of the presentation.

Later this month, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature will decide on the fate of next year’s nearly $2 billion budget deficit. The state is advising anywhere between a 12 to 20 percent cut in appropriations to higher education. Until the final number is released, Kohrman and his staff can only guess as to what their next move will be.

“Once Lansing gives us an indicator of where they’re headed, that’s when our real crunch time starts,” Kohrman said. “We know something’s coming.”

Roughly 25 percent of the university’s total budget depends on the state; and nearly 40 percent of its general fund budget comes from the state.

Michigan ranks 49th in states that have increased their higher education budgets; only Rhode Island is worse. In fiscal year 1997, North Carolina and Michigan had basically the same amount of appropriations ($1.7 billion). Since then, North Carolina has invested an additional $2.0 billion into higher education. Michigan has invested just an additional $300 million.

Kohrman said that the university has already been trimming costs, in terms of looking at personnel, not filling administrative vacancies and cutting some of the administrative positions.

To prepare for what the tuition cuts will bring, Kohrman said that he will be meeting with the Board at least 10 times over the next few months to discuss all the ways to cut costs.

Kohrman did say that financial aid is the key to offsetting any burden the university will take.

“Whatever the tuition rate is, we have to increase financial aid by more than that,” he said.

Howard Shapiro, associate vice president of undergraduate programs and general education, who works closely with Kohrman on the budget, agreed.

“If we have more students who need financial aid, we need to allocate more money to financial aid,” he said. “We’re all in favor of increasing financial aid in proportion to the tuition increase to help the students who have the biggest need.”

1 comments

EX-muslim

Mon Feb 8 2010 13:51

We need to build more dorms on campus. Why is their a waiting list to live on campus?

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