Duquesne departments face budget cuts

Duquesne issued budget cuts for every University department and organization, effective Jan. 4, in response to a decrease in enrollment, officials said.

According to Associate Vice President for Budget, Planning and Institutional Research Matt Frist, the cuts only affected non-labor accounts on campus, meaning that no salaries or positions will be cut in any department.

Budgets were cut by an average of eight percent, Frist said. Some departments received the minimum cut of five percent, while other departments, such as the division of Business and Management, saw a cut of 12 percent.

According to Frist, the division of Business and Management is made up of many administrative departments such as Facilities Management, Computing and Technology Services, the Controllers office, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Auxiliary Services. Each department is responsible for adjusting its non-labor budget accordingly.

"[The budget cut] means that departments are going to need to review and reprioritize what they are spending. They need to look for creative ways to mitigate costs," Frist said. "They may look for more efficient ways to operate at lower costs. These departments are different and they'll need to come up with their own strategies."

According to University spokeswoman Bridget Fare, the cuts were necessary to prevent high tuition increases. She added that over the past three years, the University's tuition increases have been its lowest in 30 years.

Frist said the budget cuts are a strategic response to a drop in enrollment, which decreased by 219 students, or approximately two percent, last semester. With tuition and fees, that enrollment drop resulted in the University  losing about $6.5 million, Frist said.

"It's necessary and prudent for us to look at our expense budgets and make adjustments," Frist said.

He added that the budget cuts were done on a departmental level.

"We reviewed every non-labor budget across campus, and there were certain areas that we thought it was critical to reserve as much of the budget as possible," Frist said. "We thought [the Enrollment Management department] was important to sustain as much of their budget as possible. We're highly dependent on student income, so it's very important that they have their resources."

According to Frist, Duquesne's budget is 85 percent dependent on student income, which includes tuition, fees and auxiliary enterprise revenue.

Frist added that administrative departments saw higher budget cuts than academic departments.

University President Charles Dougherty sent an e-mail Tuesday morning to all University employees explaining the need for these campus-wide budget cuts.

"We will, of course, raise tuition to insure continued quality [of a Duquesne education]," Dougherty wrote in the e-mail. "But we cannot make up for large revenue losses by large tuition increases."

Dougherty also mentioned in the email that Duquesne has a base tuition rate lower than the average tuition of the 11 other national Catholic universities.

Assistant Vice President for Student Life Cheryl Knoch said the Office of Student Life will have to reevaluate its programming because of the cuts.

"We're hoping that it's not going to make for a big difference," Knoch said. "We have to take a look at the programs that we're trying to do this semester and maybe consolidate them or have organizations co-sponsor them. Overall, we're really looking at the programs and setting priorities and creatively making a plan for how to proceed."

The School of Nursing, which was issued a six percent budget cut, will not see many changes as a result, said Eileen Zungolo, dean of the school.

"We are a comparatively smaller school that is not departmentalized so our budget is made in a more centralized way," Zungolo said. "We are going to be able to make these changes without any diminishing of services for students and faculty."

J. Douglas Bricker, dean of the Mylan School of Pharmacy, agreed that academics would not suffer as a result of the school's five percent budget cut. Bricker said that the School of Pharmacy will have to be a little more conservative in what is being spent.

The University will hold a town hall meeting on Monday, Feb. 13 at 2:30 p.m. in the Power Center Ballroom to discuss the cuts, according to Fare.