PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s three public colleges are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls in this pandemic year, leading to reductions in staff, hiring freezes, and cuts to the salaries of top administrators.
The University of Rhode Island, which increasingly relies on tuition from out-of-state students, is projecting a budget shortfall of $42.2 million this fiscal year.
The Community College of Rhode Island is projecting a 12% to 18% decline in enrollment, including a decline in the free-college tuition program, Rhode Island Promise. The college is anticipating a revenue shortfall of $8.4 million for the current year.Rhode Island College is facing a deficit of $10.4 million.
“This is one of the most significant crises (ever) facing higher education,” said Stephen Nedder, RIC’s vice president of administration and finance. “Right now, we’re looking at a 10% decline in enrollment.”
Rhode Island isn’t alone. Colleges and universities across the country are facing a financial crisis arising from the confluence of several events: COVID-19, which has caused significant declines in enrollment, cuts in state revenue and the added cost of virus mitigation efforts.
Dr. Robert Kelchen, chairman of the Department of Education Leadership, Management and Policy at Seton Hall University, said colleges have never faced a crisis like this before.
“Colleges are having their budgets devastated, and they don’t know how long it will last,” he said Tuesday. “For public colleges dependent on state aid, it may take several years to return back to normal.”
Kelchen estimates that 25 to 50 small, private colleges could close over the next 12 months.
The public institutions, he said, will continue to survive because they are not solely reliant on tuition and endowments, and because elected leaders would never let a public college fail.
Colleges have faced financial crises before. But those were different. During the Great Recession of 2008, colleges often saw an uptick in enrollments because people, especially older adults, saw it as an opportunity to get a college degree.
With the coronavirus, many colleges are going remote, and students are reluctant to pay full price for a less-than-robust college experience, Kelchen said.
Compounding the problem, Gov. Gina Raimondo “scooped” money from the public colleges’ budgets and back-filled with federal relief aid. However, the federal money is earmarked for virus-related expenses, such as sanitizing buildings and providing protective equipment.
Rhode Island’s public institutions now face two huge unknowns: how much, if anything, they will get from an additional round of federal relief (which isn’t guaranteed), and how much the state will give them for the upcoming fiscal year.
Raimonodo has already told state agencies to trim their budgets by 15% for fiscal 2022, which begins nearly a year from now.
“Now, we are trying to finish planning for the current year, and start planning for fiscal 2022,” Nedder said.
Rhode Island College expects to reduce its adjunct-faculty budget by as much as 50% for the upcoming academic year after three straight years of declining adjunct employment.
The president, vice presidents, associate vice presidents and deans are taking salary cuts ranging from 10% for President Frank Sanchez to 7.5% for deans.
The faculty union has agreed to delay its 2.5% cost-of-living increase.
And RIC expects to announce another round of layoffs next month.
Mikaila Arthur, chairman of RIC’s sociology department, said that since the Great Recession, states have chosen to “disinvest” in public colleges and universities and have asked students to take on a larger share of the cost.
Quoting data from the State Higher Education Officers Association, Arthur said Rhode Island ranked 45th per capita out of the 50 states in public education support for fiscal 2018.
“We’re running so lean that a 15% cut will have devastating consequences,” she said. “We’ve lost a number of faculty to retirements that we can’t replace. Our budget for adjuncts was cut by 50%. Some first-year courses are completely full.”
Nedder said RIC is troubleshooting these issues as they arise.
Students shouldn’t panic, he said.
“Have some patience” Nedder said. “The more people understand the critical junction that higher education is at, the more that will help support the budget process.
“At the end of the day, I do this because I believe in educating our students.”