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Friday, March 29, 2024

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From the President

Posted: Thursday, September 29, 2016

Budget and Enrollment Update

As many of you are aware, Buffalo State welcomed another large class of first-year students to campus this fall. Approximately 1,700 freshmen joined our academic community in August, marking the third-largest cohort of first-year students in the past 25 years. While interest has been high among potential first-year students, we continue to experience downward trends in transfer and graduate enrollments, as well as declines in returning upperclassmen and part-time students.

These declines have resulted in an overall student enrollment of 9,475 for this fall, which is about 800 students lower than our fall 2015 enrollment. As a result, the college faces a structural deficit of $3.3 million for the coming year. Coupled with $1.4 million in one-time unfunded costs for negotiated salary payments, we are projecting an all-funds budget deficit of $4.7 million for 2016–2017.

To help minimize the impact of this projected deficit on our campus reserves, effective immediately, we are instituting a freeze on hiring and other personnel actions that commit campus budget resources through the end of the fiscal year. The President’s Cabinet will continue its current practice of reviewing all proposed personnel actions and may permit hires deemed critical to move forward, such as those related to campus safety, accreditation, and regulatory compliance.

Over the next several months, personnel in the Accounting and Budget units will be working with campus leadership to review all campus budgets for opportunities for reductions and strategic reallocations, and to identify potential revenue-generating opportunities. We also welcome campus input into this process and ask that ideas be submitted to vpfm@buffalostate.edu.

Concurrently, our efforts to improve transfer enrollment and retention numbers will continue. In the coming days, we will announce a new articulation agreement with Erie Community College called the “Kat to Bengal Bridge Program.” We also believe that initiatives such as our “Roar in 4” four-year graduate guarantee, Phase I of the centralized Academic Achievement Center in Butler Library, changes to the advisement process, and a greater emphasis on high-impact practices will lead to more students persisting and graduating from Buffalo State.

I will continue to keep you updated as we work together to address these challenges. Thank you in advance for your contributions, collaborations, and assistance with the important work that lies ahead.

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