Over the past several months, the Fairfield University Budget Committee has been hard at work developing the university’s budget for the upcoming school year. Yesterday afternoon, Fairfield University held its annual budget meeting at the Barone Campus Center where concerned and curious students were able to better understand the budgeting process, or so they thought.
University President Father Jeffrey von Arx and Vice President of Finance and Treasurer Julie Dolan explained their strategic plan for budget balancing for the upcoming year. The Budget Committee, comprised of the university president, administration, faculty, and a student body representative assured students at the meeting that they remain optimistic with their budget for the 2011-2012 school year.
With a very frustrated student body in the audience, the question and answer period was arguably the most interesting part of the presentation. Students pre sented concerns with increased financial obligations for the students as a means to ‘budget balance’.
One of the major issues presented was Gov. Dan Malloy’s proposed cut to the Connecticut Independent College Student Grant program, also known as CICS. The CICS program provides grant money for college students in Connecticut to attend in-state private schools.
With pressure from the intended cut, Fairfield has replaced $400,000 of state financial support with university funding in the case that the governor should cut a portion of the program’s funding. They hope to alleviate some of the financial burden placed on students.
Students were also upset with the 4 percent tuition, room and board increase, which would raise tuition to $52,000 for the upcoming school year. With the governor’s proposed plan looming overhead, students are left wondering how they could possibly pay without the assistance of grant money.
Freshman Liam Josephson was concerned with one of the minor topics discussed. The university plans to increase the amount of money charged to register cars on campus as a means of budget balancing. “I mean this is one of the less significant issues they discussed, but I feel like this is something that students could control. The fact that, not only am I not allowed to have a car on campus, but now I’ll have to pay extra in following years on top of tuition is just ridiculous.”
Another widespread issue was the seeming possibility that there may no longer be “beach living” for seniors during their Fairfield career. Josephson commented, “The PowerPoint showed that they weren’t taking on many more students then they have in past years, so what does that mean? They are going to have to fill those new dorms that no one wanted and they aren’t going to let seniors off until they’re filled. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Fairfield projected that the incoming freshman class size for the 2011-2012 year would be about 960 students, no significant size difference from previous years. The university also predicted that the full time undergraduate amount would be about 3,269 students, again no significant size difference from past years.
More students equal more revenue for Fairfield, which is exactly what the university needs during this time of economic uncertainty. The more students that remain on campus, the more revenue Fairfield can put back into its budget, but this concept does not come without concerns for administration.
When asked what some of the things that scared her the most were about this upcoming year, Vice President of Finance Julie Dolan responded that one of the most prevalent thoughts that “keeps her up at night” is the ability of students and families to afford Fairfield. Although she was more optimistic than not, she said this was still one of the things that she has to worry about the most.
The meeting ended in a somewhat dispirited fashion. Many of the students appeared more confused leaving then they did when they first entered the meeting.
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