The University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) met on Jan. 30 to address the budget gap. According to Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet, UCCS will significantly reduce expenses over a five-year timeline to permanently close this gap and replenish reserves.
This includes an $11.8 million reduction in the base budget during the 2027 fiscal year (FY). UBAC is a standing committee that makes short and long-term recommendations to the chancellor concerning the university’s budget. After FY 2027, an approximate $5.3 million in reductions is predicted each subsequent year.
UBAC has created a budget that predicts revenue and expenses through FY 2031. Predictions are based on mandatory expenses, interest rates, anticipated credit hours and enrollment growth among other factors.
Expense reductions include terminating programs and cutting faculty members and staff.
“We recognize that the scope and scale of the adjustments that we’re talking about are going to take some creativity [and] very difficult decision making, which may include program discontinuance, adjustments to workload [and] adjustments to course caps,” Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Lynn Vidler said, “I know this is extremely difficult, however, some of those solutions will help save people and save programs.”
According to Vidler, the process of teaching out will allow students who have declared a discontinued program to finish their degree path in that program. Student employees are also unlikely to be affected.
“Depending on what decisions are made in the future, we may see a few people impacted, but we truly rely on our student employees to keep things running at this time,” said Stephanie Hanenberg, the interim vice chancellor for enrollment management and student affairs.
In addition to reducing spending, reallocating sources to align with UCCS’ differentiators, the students, faculty and staff, research projects and partnerships with the Colorado Springs community will work to balance the budget.
According to Sobanet, community partnerships will be mutually beneficial. In addition to research experience, students may have additional experience or scholarship opportunities.
“Say [we have] an academic program where we have students involved, and it’s connected to a community partner. We’re going to ask that community partner to lean in for us and maybe provide our students with scholarships or provide those students with mentorships or paid internships,” she said.
According to the Interim Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, Jeff Greene, UCCS has relied on reserves and system office funds to keep the budget balanced since 2017. However, UCCS’ expenses are consistently greater than its revenue, creating a structural deficit.
“Even with sustained base reductions and reallocations, a persistent gap develops … if left unaddressed, it reappears each year and steadily reduces financial flexibility,” Greene said.
UBAC will allocate over $10 million toward “healthy campus initiatives” which includes merit compensation for remaining faculty and staff, deferred maintenance, student recruitment, expanding successful academic programs and creating new programs despite the reduction in expenses.
The committee is working to establish a new three-step allocation model to determine funding cuts. The model was drafted by Kevin Laudner, the dean of the college of nursing and health science, with the support of the other deans, according to Vidler, although it’s still undergoing revisions.
As of now, the first step is collecting data on the colleges and academic divisions, such as academic affairs, administration and finance and university advancement. Performance metrics will be used to track and monitor expenses to make data-driven decisions on strategy and resource allocation.
Each college and division are given a composite score based on the established performance metrics, which will summarize their performance. The score will be rated by the Executive Leadership Team, although each phase is conducted by separate and independent groups of people.
“[The model] recognizes what’s performing well, what matters most to students and what positions us best for the future,” Laudner said.
UCCS will employ new financial controls and processes to change how resources are used to reduce expenses. These changes include rearranging where funds are held to prevent permanent funds from co-mingling with temporary funds, updating the reserve spending policy to ensure the appropriate use of one-time funds and notice over and under spending early, and monitoring indirect cost recovery via increased tuition revenue.
At the end of FY 2031, there will be room in the base budget for activities and positions that are currently funded by one-time fees, such as mental health support for students, career services, marketing and more, according to Sobanet.
According to Sobanet, the budget is flexible and UBAC can monitor the impact of reduction strategies.
“[The budget model] will allow us to make real time adjustments to our strategy so that as we make progress closing the gap by growing revenue, we can adjust our expense strategy immediately,” Sobanet said.
The Clyde statue. Photo by Josiah Dolan.