ESU Backup Insider

After an uncertain few months, I am writing to provide you with an update on the fiscal year 2011-2012 Commonwealth General Fund Budget for higher education and its impact on PASSHE and ESU. The budget, which was signed into law by Governor Tom Corbett on Thursday, June 30, 2011, includes an approved appropriation of $412,751,000 for PASSHE and equates to an 18 percent reduction from the previous fiscal year. PASSHE’s level of funding is now nearly what it was in 1997-98. This reduction reflects a loss of $38 million in federal stimulus funds and more than $52 million in state support.

Due to the budget shortfall, the PASSHE Board of Governors approved a $436 tuition increase for the 2011-2012 academic year and a technology fee increase of $116 per year. Although this represents the largest tuition increase in several years, it will only partially offset the loss of more than $90 million in state and federal funding for PASSHE which equates to $802 per full-time student. In spite of this increase, however, tuition is still among the lowest of all four-year colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, and well below the national average among all public institutions.

Since we already knew that ESU was facing a $2.6 million shortfall due to the loss of the federal stimulus funds when we started the 2011-2012 budget process, over the past year we have been proactive in applying cost saving measures to our operations and services such as placing open positions on hold, eliminating vacant positions, and implementing more efficient class sizes. Although there are still unknown factors, I am confident we can accommodate the realities of this budget in the upcoming year with your support. We will continue to analyze the impact of the budget cut and work toward ensuring that our ability to continue to provide quality education to our students at a reasonable cost is not compromised.

I would like to thank our entire campus community, especially our students and PASSHE leadership for their endless support in working with our legislators to achieve the restoration of some of the funding cuts that had been proposed by the Governor. As I have said previously, we are looking at these cuts as permanent fixtures going forward for future budget years. Long gone are the days when there will be excess funds to distribute to all of our PASSHE universities. I look at this as an opportunity for our campus to come together to overcome these financial challenges while at the same time continuing to efficiently deliver the best education our students can receive.