Moving to Offense: A New Playbook for Confronting Budget Shortfalls
Author: Ray Schroeder
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Tammy Kolbe and Rick Staisloff, Inside Higher Ed
Across-the-board cuts and salary freezes won’t make colleges sustainable. It’s time to adopt a strategic framework for financial decision making. State revenues were projected to drop 10 percent for the 2020 fiscal year (which ended June 30), and as much as 25 percent again in 2021. Institutions are uncertain about fall enrollment numbers and face increased cost in operations due to the need to address immediate COVID-19 impacts and invest in alternative ways to deliver instruction. And, unlike the years following the 2008 recession, institutions cannot expect to fill budget holes by raising tuition, owing to concerns over the already high cost of tuition and student debt burden.