Dear AU Community,

With the fall semester underway, we want to share the latest update on the FY24 budget and our continued work to address the $30 million projected shortfall for this year. Following our July message, we remain on track with this budget projection, which is related primarily to student enrollment and retention levels coming in below our targets.

Over the summer, we deployed comprehensive mitigation strategies to resolve the shortfall, including individualized efforts on enrollment and retention; revision of line-item budgets for schools, colleges, and administrative units; and the use of financial reserves. Concurrently, we moved forward with our planned investments in people, with the performance compensation process completed this month, updated compensation levels appearing in the September pay periods, and an increased financial aid budget for this academic year.

We will have final FY24 enrollment and related budget numbers once the university census is complete in early October. The community-wide priority work on addressing this year’s challenges in student enrollment and retention and implementing long-term strategies for sustainable future growth remains ongoing throughout the year. Based on the extensive engagement throughout the summer, we identified savings to meet our current mitigation targets and the budget is aligned with our revised projections as we begin the semester. Our focus now is ensuring currently enrolled students thrive during their time at AU and continue through to graduation, and building a strong and diverse pipeline of prospective undergraduate and graduate students for fall 2024 and beyond. We all have a critical role to play in this work.

We want to thank all the schools, colleges, and administrative units for identifying their FY24 budget revisions earlier this month. While adjusting budgets can be challenging, the combined efforts across campus are helping us to address the FY24 shortfall. We will need to continue our fiscal discipline throughout the year and maintain our laser focus on student thriving to ensure the retention numbers meet our goals now and in the future.

Additional updates will be provided following the census, including plans for the FY25 budget and beyond. We will continue our community budget forums this fall, with dates to be announced soon.

Thank you for your continued support for our students and our financial stability.

Sincerely,

Vicky Wilkins 
Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Co-Chair, University Budget Committee

Bronté Burleigh-Jones 
CFO, Vice President, and Treasurer 
Co-Chair, University Budget Committee