Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State University estimates it will have approximately a $5 million budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year, due in part to higher-than-expected revenues and lower than anticipated expenses. The university’s total budget is about $319 million.
Compared to just a few years ago when Wright State was in financial crisis and cut staff and faculty because of falling enrollment, the university appears to be healthier.
Wright State faced financial problems between 2015 and 2020, due to a federal investigation into H-B1 visa misuse, budget issues that resulted in at least $53 million in budget cuts, and cuts to faculty and staff due to falling enrollment.
About $16 million of the lower than anticipated expenses were due to positions going unfilled. Greg Sample, the university’s chief operating officer, said it can take a long time for the university to fill positions because the process to hire is a long one.
“In other words, it’s not as though we can’t find people,” Sample said. “It’s just that our process takes so long.”
Wright State collected $1.5 million more in tuition and fees in the 2022-2023 school year than expected, though total enrollment is still down about 6% compared to the previous school year.
