Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

MU searches for ways to cut back

Catherine Couretas

Miami University's budget has deteriorated quite substantially since last year, according to university President David Hodge, and now Miami is looking at ways to pull out of its recent deficit.

Last year, Miami used more funding than originally planned, resulting in a multi-million dollar deficit, according to David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services.

"We have some issues that are becoming a little bit more challenging for us," Creamer said at the university senate meeting Monday. "2001 was the last year before we went through state cuts and state changes that have limited some of the things that we can do."

According to Hodge, Miami has now looked into other options, such as gift funds, to decrease reliance on central funds.

"We had a situation where we were increasing the amount of money we were depending on, but we actually had a $7 million dollar loss," Creamer said. "As we were dealing with some of our budget problems, we knew we had some money we could go back on and it was used substantially."

According to Creamer, Miami now receives just under $60 million in state support annually, down from $65.4 million in 2001.

However, state support is only a part of Miami's funding. Hodge said most comes from student tuition, though Miami hasn't seen an increase in revenue from this due to state restrictions.

"Eighty percent of our core budget comes from tuition," Hodge said. "When the state caps our tuition, it has significant impacts on our budget."

Hodge added that there would be a $2 million dollar cut from the budget that will be felt campus-wide this academic year.

"We've tried to spare the academic affairs unit because making cuts there is more problematic," Hodge said. "Right now we're deeply concerned with state support. What happens to tuition plays a huge role in this."

Hodge continued to say the university thinks of the debt as a serious issue, but not a crisis. He said there are simple ways for the university to save money.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

"We need to stop doing some things altogether, merge programs and duplicate functions," Hodge said. "There are simple things that can have a big change."

Hodge said using e-mail instead of internal university mailing is one way to save money, and added that the university will be looking into other ideas that can benefit Miami in the long run.

"We must not let the short-term challenges, which are significant, deter us from thinking about the long-term," Hodge said. "We don't want to make short-term decisions that are convenient but detrimental to long term success."

Hodge said Miami's national reputation is crucial in bringing in more students, which in turn affects revenue.

"If we want tuition to increase, we need to be a hot ticket," Hodge said. "We need to be better and better and better and let the rest of the world know it. Academic excellence is the heart of our future."

Provost Jeffrey Herbst said graduate programs are going under review in an effort to determine which are the most popular.

"We had begun a process of reviewing all of the graduate programs at the university," Herbst said. "We want to make sure we are investing in the programs and look carefully at where we're making advancements."