Tuition revenue falls short of plan for 2008-09

October 29, 2008
By Pete Nickeas
Public Affairs Reporter

UIS is facing a $2.2 million shortfall of its projected tuition revenue for the 2008-2009 academic year, according to Provost Harry Berman.

The university failed to meet this year’s enrollment projections. The projected shortfall takes into consideration an expected decline in enrollment in the spring semester.

The university budgeted for slightly over $23 million in tuition revenue, which accounts for about half of its operational budget. The other half comes from the state.

Total new first-year students and online students both exceeded projections. But the university’s difficulty retaining and attracting new graduate students, according to Berman, disproportionately affected tuition revenues since they pay more than undergraduate students.

The issue of retention has been one of primary importance to university administration, who this year launched the Diversity Center and the Center for First- Year Students to bolster retention rates.

The gap in revenue has forced departments and divisions around campus to reduce spending, according to Berman. Aside from that, he said, the university dipped into a reserve fund to bridge the shortfall.

“We put some of our reserve money towards meeting this shortfall that was from the enrollment,” Berman said. “There were things we weren’t able to do, searches that were canceled, just to meet this problem we have
related to enrollment.”

Departments have also been told to prepare for the possibility of reduced state funding of the University of Illinois system, though there has been no official order from the state to that effect, according to spokesperson Michelle Green.

“The different departments have been told, keep an eye on spending because this is what we could be looking at,” University spokesperson Michelle Green said. “But nothing firm has come down from the state yet. I seriously doubt they would do anything like that this far in advance.”

Berman said he doesn’t believe departmental cuts will have an affect on student experience.

“I think for the most part, we were able to keep those cuts away from the classroom and life went on as usual, for the most part,” Berman said.