Projected budget still up in the air

Andrew Flohr-Spence
spencand@mscd.edu

Metro could face budget cuts in addition to the $5 million proposed in January.

Depending on the state’s March revised budget, more money may be cut from higher education.

“I’m not going to say (the state budget) could get worse, I don’t think it will get better, but we have to know that this $5 million could change after the March economic forecast,” Vice President of Administration and Finance Natalie Lutes told Metro’s Board of Trustees. “We’re not saying the $5 million is all that it could be.”

If enough money can’t be found elsewhere, or if the budget gets cut any more, radical changes may need to be considered,” Metro President Stephen Jordan said.

In the coming months, Metro officials will discuss alternative funding options with higher education officials and state legislators, Jordan said. The options could include capping enrollment or raising tuition above the state’s currently allowed levels.

Both measures would require legislators to rewrite the state statutes governing Metro in these areas for the first time in the college’s history.

Limiting enrollment would change Metro’s state mandate as a college with open enrollment.
Lynn Kaersvang, president of the Faculty Senate, said she agreed the school needed to look at the option.

“I have no idea how — we’ve never done that before, but looking at it is really important,” Kaersvang said. “If we continue to be all things to all people and there is no funding, then the education suffers.”

Raising tuition would require the state to rewrite its laws limiting the maximum yearly tuition increases at 7 percent, and could also complicate the number of Pell Grants for Metro students. The state requires Pell-eligible schools to cap tuition increases at 5 percent.

Jordan said the two would be last-resort options, but if the college couldn’t find the money, then they were “options we have to consider.”