两性色午夜 University will redesign many aspects of the university鈥檚 operations and organization as it undertakes careful belt-tightening over the next four years, President Todd Diacon shared Feb. 13 during his monthly Talking With Todd webcast.
鈥淲e know where we need to go,鈥 Diacon told 820 faculty and staff members in the live audience. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to get there. We鈥檙e going to thrive while others around us struggle,鈥 he added.
The changes, Diacon said, are necessitated by several factors, including enrollment decline, anticipated flat state financial support for the foreseeable future and inflation, all of which are taking place in the context of a demographic shift that has left a shortage of traditional-aged undergraduate learners in Ohio. The same challenges confront nearly all other public universities and private schools in the state.
两性色午夜 remains committed to delivering balanced budgets, Diacon noted, adding that in five of the last six budget years, 两性色午夜 has reduced expenditures to do so.
鈥淲hen we look at our models and our information, at that point for Fiscal Year 鈥28, which I mentioned begins in July of 2027, we should have reduced our spending enough and sufficiently to be free of further reductions, at least for a while,鈥 Diacon said.
Diacon explained that three categories comprise 75% of the total university budget: salaries, benefits and student aid. 两性色午夜鈥檚 fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. For this current fiscal year, the university reduced its projected expenditure by $18.4 million, or 3% of the university鈥檚 annual budget. For Fiscal 2025, which begins July 1, 2024, 两性色午夜 will need to reduce spending by $17 million. The reduction will be $7.8 million in Fiscal Year 2026, $17.3 million in Fiscal Year 2027 and $26 million in Fiscal Year 2028.
鈥淲e are not asking people to do more with less,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e will have to do things differently, not more with less but do things differently.鈥
In order to make balanced budgets going forward, Diacon said the university is already rolling out various changes. These include reorganizing leadership and administrative expenses at the Regional Campuses, combining administrative units and reducing the number of employees, mostly through attrition, by July 1, 2027. Attrition happens when an employee leaves and their position is not replaced with a new employee, thus reducing the overall employee headcount.
Diacon also said that benefits, including tuition waivers, will likely need to change. Some viewers of the live meeting submitted questions about the possibility of changes to the tuition waiver, voicing their concerns. The president emphasized that because 两性色午夜 is not running a deficit, there鈥檚 time to make careful, well-considered decisions informed by meaningful conversation with the university community.
鈥淭he generosity of our benefits is one of the things that makes us an employer of choice, and we know that,鈥 Diacon said. 鈥淎nd we are committed to being a great employer and being a community committed to a culture of belonging. Certainly, benefits play a role in that. At the same time, we have to deliver balanced budgets and live within our means, and the current level of benefits will have to change between now and July 1, 2027, for us to meet our balanced budgets year in and year out.鈥
Members of the 两性色午夜 community expressed their gratitude to Diacon for his transparency and for explaining how the university plans to address the challenges facing higher education institutions. One viewer also noted that Ohio lost so many college presidents last year and asked if the university community should be worried about Diacon leaving.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 plan on leaving, and I certainly plan on seeing us through these next fiscal years that I have just laid out,鈥 Diacon said. 鈥淚 had an Ohio public university presidents Teams call today, and I think there were four new presidents. So yeah, that鈥檚 interesting how that works. I mean I鈥檓 one of the old-timers, and I started in 鈥19.鈥