The Ashland University Faculty Senate recently met on Feb. 7, as they do on every first Friday of the month. This was a time where each committee within the faculty senate gave a report from the recent board of trustees meeting held the week before. The following is a report on the updates from the faculty senate and their concern regarding the current state of the university.

Due to the spending freeze instituted by the administration in November 2019, all costs related to student academic travel, professional development and training, and conferences was suspended, while student athletic travel was not suspended.

After the board of trustees meeting in January, there was an exemption made in the spending freeze.

Dr. Becky Corbin, the chair of the institutional advancement committee within the faculty senate, said that there was concern among the faculty as to the frozen funds for student academic travel. After discussion between the administrators and the board of trustees, it was decided that they would lift the freeze from student academic travel.

On Feb. 10, the Office of Student Life communicated to student organizations, honoraries and clubs to expect a 15-20 percent reduction in ABCC (Activities, Budget and Chartering Committee) budget allocations for the 2020-2021 academic year.

They noted that this change is “due to the lower enrollment projections and an increase in the number of organizations requesting funds.”

Corbin also reported that the university endowment had surpassed $50 million by the end of 2019. This shows the continued growth of the endowment from when it was $41 million in 2017.

Dr. Jeffrey Weidenhamer, the chair of the finances and facilities committee within the faculty senate, said the Executive Leadership Team (administration) presented a working draft of the budget for the 2020-2021 academic year to the board of trustees. The budget had a projected revenue of $109.2 million and a projected expense of $108.8 million.

This proposed budget is still a working draft and has not yet been voted on by the board of trustees.

Weidenhamer said that within his specific committee meeting concerning facilities and finances, there was no sense of the university being in financial difficulty or there being any bumps in the road. He added that the numbers do not show it either.
The next meeting for the faculty senate will take place on March 6 while the board of trustees will not reconvene until their scheduled meeting in April.