I am writing today to share with you information regarding the University’s student enrollment status, our financial position, and the impact this situation will have on all of us in the coming years. While key elements of our near-term operations are not yet finalized — including state budget appropriations, our Fall 2023 total enrollment and the Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget — we do know that we will be facing a significant operating deficit.
Our decreasing enrollment and related revenue shortfall are not entirely unexpected. Colleges and universities across Ohio and the country have anticipated a decline in the number of high school graduates and typical college-age students. In recent years, this demographic reality has been compounded by the lingering academic impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic and employer needs that are creating short-term incentives for college-age individuals to enter the workforce early rather than continue their education.
So, what are we to do with this sobering news? We cannot ignore a budget shortfall, and at the same time, we cannot slow our momentum toward innovating on our curriculum and research and creating the best possible learning opportunities for our students. We must focus on both, and I am confident that, if we do it together, we can succeed.
To that end, the Senior Leadership Team and I are putting in place an inclusive plan to build the organizational resilience and financial stability we will need in order to thrive in this changing higher education landscape. This plan is designed to seek input and creative thinking from many stakeholders within the CSU community.
Specifically, here is what you can expect to see happening in the weeks ahead:
- An Organizational Resilience/Financial Stability planning group, comprised of faculty and staff from across campus, will begin their work. Their charge is to recommend high level strategies to reduce costs, more closely manage/limit expenditures and increase revenues as soon as this fall, but also in the months and years to come. This work is necessary so that we can present a balanced budget to our Board of Trustees for approval early this fall.
Over the course of the summer, this group will review and consolidate recommendations and input received from several standing committees and organizations across campus, including (but not necessarily limited to) the Campus Leadership Council, Faculty Senate, Deans’ Council, Staff Association, Student Government Association, and Graduate and Professional Student Association As a key part of their efforts, they will appraise and minimize any impact on our students so that we continue to provide the resources and services they need to complete their degrees and succeed.
- We will host a webinar on Tuesday, July 25th at 3 pm to share specifics about our enrollment and financial status, including the extent of our enrollment decline, increases in operating expenditures and the total deficit. I encourage you to attend this important information session. Further details on this event are forthcoming.
- That same day, we will launch and then regularly update an Organizational Resilience/Financial Stability webpage, which will include status reports, information about specific cost-cutting measures and the data shared during the webinar. The webpage will also include a feedback and recommendation portal where you will be invited to offer recommendations for budget cutting, cost containment measures and strategic investments in revenue growth. I know I speak for the entire Senior Leadership Team when I say we are eager to hear your recommendations.
- We will continue the stringent Authorization to Hire review process that was launched last year, and other strategies in this vein may be forthcoming.
As we move forward, all of our work to address a revenue shortfall and budget gap will follow six guiding principles developed and endorsed by the Senior Leadership Team.
As a campus community, we will:
- stay true to our core mission as the only public urban research university in Northeast Ohio even as we focus our efforts on ensuring financial stability and organizational resilience,
- prioritize the needs of our students and their educational experience,
- develop and invest in priority strategies that manage costs and result in savings and revenue growth,
- implement strategies informed by data and monitored for effectiveness,
- leverage the creative thinking and recommendations of CSU stakeholders across campus, and
- prioritize a decision-making approach that is inclusive, equitable, and transparent to the campus community.
There is no doubt that this changing higher education landscape presents real and significant challenges for us. If we navigate this wisely, I believe it also creates an opportunity for us to emerge as leaders in shaping what higher education in this region should look like going forward. In so many ways, we are already leading through faculty-led curricular innovations in the form of our core curriculum review as well as integrated majors, through our campus master planning process and improvements to the campus experience, and through our approach of supporting the wellbeing of our students. I am proud of this work and confident in our ability to maintain momentum even as we face these headwinds. Thank you in advance for your partnership in this crucial effort.
Together, we will continue to serve our students and this city as the anchor institution most critical to the economic success and growth of our region. Together, we are Cleveland State University.
