President Fred Finks answered questions regarding his May 2015 retirement and Dr. Steve Storck, vice president of finance and administration, gave an update on the 2014-15 budget to Faculty Senate on Friday. 

Regarding the budget, Finks said the university needed to cut $6.9 million from the budget for the next academic year.  Finks emphasized how the university would strive to keep cuts to the minimum and carefully evaluate the areas that would be reduced. He explained how they would strive to maintain current salary levels for faculty members.

“They’re not off the table, but they’re not at the front burner,” Finks said. “I am going to do everything I can to avoid cuts.” 

Storck said it was difficult to determine what areas would be reduced considering the university cut many areas over the last five years.

He said that the decline in enrollment in the graduate programs has forced the university to make further reductions. That program has seen enrollment drop from 1,333 students in 2007 to 506 in 2013. Revenue from that program is down from $10.98 million in 2009-10 to $5.8 million this academic year.

Bachelors Plus students have dropped from 550 in 2007 to 361 in 2013. Seminary numbers are also down significantly, from 824 students in 2007 to 580 in 2013. 

Storck added that cutting the men’s soccer team hurt the university’s revenue for this academic year. 

“The idea was to bring in 29 additional walk-ons to pay for that,” he said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead of 29, we ended up with three.”

Before the budget talk, Finks discussed the details of his 2015 retirement.  

He said that he would encourage the university’s Board of Trustees to launch the search for the next president as early as possible before next fall. He also said that bringing in an outside interim president would cost the university more money.