At a FUSA meeting Sunday, University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx said the school is making financial aid a top priority.
Von Arx could not answer questions as to how much would be going to financial aid because the new budget will not be released until March, but said that Fairfield will be ‘tightening [its] belt’ to ensure the return of the majority of students by increasing financial aid packets.’
The visit by von Arx and other Fairfield administrators to the Senate focused primarily on anticipated shortfalls in previous budget predictions.
The University accounts for 93 percent of its operating budget through tuitions, and many students are not able to pay the same amount they could prior to current’ economic crisis.
As he prepared students to brace themselves for the future, von Arx also sought to relieve them a bit by pointing out Fairfield was not in as dire financial straights as other schools.
‘Fairfield is in as good a position as I think it could be for an institution of its type,’ he said.
Von Arx explained this was because of the University’s ‘modest’ endowment, which recently shrank from $265 million to $203 million. Fairfield relies on only 7 percent of its endowment for its operating budget, as opposed to schools like Yale that rely on endowments.
‘We took a hit, but not as bad as others have,’ he said.
But while Fairfield may not have as many endowment worries, the University must work at maintaining student enrollment, and making sure next year’s incoming class stays at the same level as past years.
‘This year’s enrollment is OK,’ said von Arx, ‘What we have to be worried about is [if] we will be able to make the budgeted amount of students for next year and the years after.’
Accompanying von Arx were three University administrators, including Vice President for Student Affairs Mark Reed. Reed stressed any budget alterations will not really be known until May.’ Even then, he stressed the University would be trying to make cuts on a ‘microcosmic’ level that would probably be invisible to students.’ He also emphasized the amount of major spending that the University would need to remain static one-way or the other.
‘We do not have the ability to have new programs without cutting something else,’ Reed said.
Because FUSA senators’ main concerns have been about increasing financial aid packages for students since the word recession hit newspapers, Fairfield has been preparing to cut down the increase in tuition as well to further help students.
Funds from this year are being saved to rollover to next year’s budget, which much of will go to financial aid packages, said Vice President of Finances William Lucas, also in attendance.
Reed also answered many questions posed by senators concerning housing.
The schedule is on track, according to Reed, and Fairfield has not yet postponed any construction of the new dorms, which is usually the first place that universities will first cut spending.
Reed also said that plans for two new dorms, one in the Quad and one in the village, are still moving forward as scheduled.
But in economic straights like this, there is always a bad side. Because of the smaller increases in tuition, the University will have to make sacrifices, campus officials said.
One may be the procurement of the golden Stag statue, which was announced to the Fairfield community two years ago. When Senate Chair Dan Lamendola ’09 asked if students were likely to see the statue that would be placed in the center of campus by the student center soon, Reed replied that artists were commissioned, but that it isn’t likely that the Stag will grace campus soon because the cost would be upwards of $70,000.
Von Arx also reminded senators that for every dollar the University decreases from tuition, it will also be seen in the decrease for funds for new programs. But he said he doesn’t have a specific list of where he wants to cut.
‘We’ve been asking our departments to seriously consider what they can do for budget cuts,’ Von Arx said.
‘It’s not exactly happy news,’ he later added.
Lucas said that every department has been asked to save at least 2.5 percent of the money they were given this year, which will go back to the general fund at the end of the year.
Also, cuts will be made to travel budgets and the staff salary will probably see no increase, although their benefits will continue to improve.
While the lack of salary increase may be tough on faculty, von Arx said this is a better option than firing staff.
‘The last thing that we want to do is layoff employees,’ he said.
Lucas agreed, adding that the main plan of action will be to ‘trim money equally’ among departments, rather than erasing entire programs.’
Billy Weitzer, executive vice president, said that any decision to take from the financial aid fund, or staff and faculty salaries would be thought out thoroughly.’
While keeping financial aid high is a priority, he said, ‘We want people to come back here to an institution.’
Leave a Reply