Miami University will welcome around 3,150 students come August, according to a letter President David Hodge sent faculty and staff Thursday, June 4. This is 350 less than expected.
With that comes the need for more financial cuts - $5 million worth - in order to compensate for the smaller class size.
Claire Wagner, associate director of university communications, said the most recent confirmation report is at about 3,330 for accepted students. But typically about 200 hundred students "melt," which means they will decide to go somewhere else.
Wagner said she thinks 3,200 will be the minimum.
"The economy is the overwhelming reason why students who would usually come to Miami couldn't this year," Hodge said.
Hodge said there was a lot more need for financial aid this year, and while Miami tried to address it, the university couldn't cover it all.
Hodge said to make this $5 million dollars worth of cuts feasible, both temporary and permanent cuts will be made.
Various departments and programs across the board will be dipping into their reserve funds.
"People might have extra money they were saving for equipment or travel," Hodge said. "We can use that and later replenish it."
Hodge said there are enough university and department reserves to last temporarily.
Another change is that unclassified staff will be given more notice when they are laid-off.
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According to Hodge's letter, Miami will amend the current unclassified position elimination policy to give these staffers more notice.
"We want to provide a rolling five months notice of position elimination for those employees who have five or more years of service and at least 60 days notice for those employees who have been here less than five years," the letter said.
Hodge said the university is only required to give laid-off workers 30 days notice.
"We value our employees and want to help with the transition," Hodge said.
Hodge said faculty and staff can expect a more detailed letter about the pending situations within a week.
He added laid-off employees will still receive their benefits for a year.
University administration has been working with the University Senate Executive Committee, the Unclassified Personnel Advisory Committee (UPAC), and the Classified Personnel Advisory Committee (CPAC) to seek alternatives to employee lay-offs.
Two money-saving methods being looked at right now are employees increasing their benefit contributions and the possibility of employees taking furloughs, or a temporary leave of absence from employment.
"We have no furloughs planned, but it's possible," Hodge said.
Hodge said the university will be in a tight financial situation for awhile but that Miami has never been better in the realm of its students.
"The incoming class has diversity and quality," Hodge said. "Miami was just recognized in a national report."
The report Hodge referred to is by the American Enterprise Institute. The report said that American universities, on average, graduate 53 percent of students in six years. Miami's rate is 80 percent.
Hodge said there are many moving parts to Miami's financial situation - enrollment, endowments, state aid and investment income. As long as these don't move in the wrong direction, Hodge said Miami will be fine.
Wagner said the state budget will be released June 30.
"The current budget keeps good funding for higher education, but we don't know our financial budget from the state, and the state budget is down," Wagner said.
The complete letter can be found at http://www.miami.muohio.edu/president/fiscal09.
Additional reporting by Brianna Mulligan.
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