Excerpt from the Wright State Guardian
Housing situations, enrollment concerns and the university’s budget were topics of discussion at the board of trustees finance, audit and infrastructure committee meeting Friday morning.
Decreased deficit
“The big focus that I want everyone to have, that we are all working towards and that I want everyone to have, is a focus in 2023. Where we have stability, where our university can thrive,” said Trustee Douglas Fetcher.
The university has decreased the potential deficit from $11.1 million to $1.5 million, according to Sommer Todd, director of University Fiscal Services.
“We are hoping that we will end up at a break even and potentially maybe even a small surplus,” said Todd.
“As we all know 30 days ago, even prior to that, when the coronavirus situation hit, it impacted the university’s financial situation in a way that none of us had expected,” said Greg Sample, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “To sit here today, at the point where we are and to look to see that we have reduced that potential deficit from $11.1 million down to $1.5 million, and we have still about 45 days to go in the budget year is phenomenal.”
Thanking the community
Sample reiterated that they are reporting the information, but the progress is the result of the university community coming together.
“We effectively pulled a parking brake on the university's spending as we were going down the road at 20 miles an hour,” said Sample. “It’s phenomenal that we are where we are, but the thanks goes out to the entire Wright State community.”
Sample is completely optimistic that with 45 days to go, they can move this situation from a completely negative, to a neutral, to a positive by the end of the fiscal year.
In the months following the pandemic and the closure of the university, President Sue Edwards has asked certain leaders to voluntarily reduce work time to save the university salary dollars. Jerry Hensley, CaTS web accessibility coordinator, asked if this was baked into the numbers.
According to Sommers, the reduction in salary dollars is not yet included in the numbers.
“Based upon the rough estimates that we have… it’s roughly around 250,000 dollars,” said Edwards.
“So it’s a relatively small number,” said Hensley.
“But over two months it’s half a million,” said Edwards. “It’s much appreciated and it does help us going down the road and we are very thankful for all of those staff that are participating in that particular enterprise.”
