Dear AU Community,

With FY24 underway, we want to share the latest budget status for this year, our approach to addressing financial challenges, and our ongoing investments in university priorities and compensation enhancements for our people.

As noted in our June 2 update on the FY24 budget, we are working against a $30 million shortfall due primarily to undergraduate and graduate enrollments coming in lower than our targets. There are two main drivers of the $30 million shortfall─$21 million less than budgeted in undergraduate and graduate tuition revenue (with graduate enrollment levels comprising the majority of the shortage) and $5 million in additional investments above budget that we decided to make in our people for compensation and student financial aid. The remainder of the shortfall is contingency funding.

The FY24 budget shortfall is a serious but solvable matter. A $30 million gap within an $850 million budget is manageable thanks to our overall financial discipline. We have a clear plan to address the immediate budget needs and continue building a strong future for AU. Our approach has three pillars: implement strategic investments and actions this year, improve student enrollment and retention for long-term revenue stability, and make strategic budget decisions at the division/unit level that control costs and focus on our core work that will contribute to our future success.

First, the FY24 budget will continue to fund and prioritize our strategic actions this year. We will continue compensation enhancements for our staff and faculty, which are underway with the completion of the performance review cycle, and increased financial aid for our students. The Change Can’t Wait campaign is moving forward towards its successful completion to raise long-term funds for AU’s future and our planned work within the Changemakers strategic plan remains on track. We continue to regularly meet with the University Budget Committee to review our finances and plans. Fundamentally, addressing the budget shortfall does not mean we will slow our momentum.

Second, enrollment and retention are a priority for everyone at the university and we each have a role to play in achieving our desired outcomes. We have both the team and the comprehensive strategy in place to address the enrollment and retention challenges. Evelyn Thimba joined us last week as vice president of undergraduate enrollment management and is working with her team to chart our future course for undergraduate student recruitment. Raymond Ou is on board as vice president of student affairs, collaborating with the cross-functional SA team to further our commitment to helping students thrive during their time at AU. Assistant vice president for student success Ashlie Prioleau is working with teams across the university on our enhanced retention program that is already engaging our students. Dean Wendy Boland, the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies, and the graduate enrollment teams in the schools are driving ahead to complete this year’s graduate enrollments and expand our graduate student pipeline for the future. The combined efforts of these leaders, their dedicated teams, and all of us focusing on student enrollment and retention within our work will resolve our challenges and produce long-term success in these areas.

Third, through a collaborative process, budget parameters have been provided to individual divisions/units this week to identify necessary FY24 savings in non-personnel operating budgets. The examination of operating budgets will also enable us to make strategic decisions that will help us improve for the future. The savings instructions are not prescriptive; individual divisions/units can make decisions that work for their goals and teams. Areas for savings may include food, travel, supplies and equipment, membership, contractual, and consultant expenses, among other areas.

Together, these steps will help us address the FY24 budget challenges and secure our financial foundation for future years. We will send additional budget updates as these measures move forward, including when the budget revisions are complete later this summer.

As summer moves forward, we hope you are getting some rest, relaxation, and fun. It is important that we all recharge so we can continue moving our mission forward. Thank you for your participation and support in these critical actions to support our budget and our community.

Sincerely,

Vicky Wilkins
Acting Provost
Co-Chair, University Budget Committee

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