KSMU's Michele Skalicky talks with Missouri State University President Dr. Richard "Biff" Williams about the FY 2027 MSU budget.
Today's topic is the university's budget for this fiscal year. Governor Mike Kehoe recently signed the fiscal year 2027 state budget. What is in that for Missouri State University?
Williams: So, with all other universities, the governor was really clear when he started his budget back in November and December of last year, he didn't have any increases to the core budget for any of the institutions of higher learning. And he stuck to that. And it was helpful that he let us know that he wanted to do that. So, we did not receive a core increase. We had asked for 4%, and this was in conjunction with all the other institutions of higher learning here in the state of Missouri. We also — with MOSERS, as you know, has increased over the years, and what that does is we are very fortunate to have such great benefits at Missouri State University. I think that's why so many faculty and staff come (and)...stay for so long. But it does come at a cost. And so, we did request initially $2.2 million to help with that. We didn't receive that either. And so, this year was a really a flat year. This is not uncommon. So, if you look in the history of Missouri State University in 2002, 2004, 2010, 11 and 16 were years that we didn't have an increase.
Yeah. And I know some extra money was coming into the state from the federal government because of COVID, and that's going away.
Williams: I think that we were very blessed for many years. You look at all the great buildings that we have and the matching funds that we were able to come up with. We made great use of the COVID funds.
The Missouri State Board of Governors approved the 2027 budget in June, which you said in your blog words of Williams, accounts for flat appropriations, relatively conservative enrollment projections, lower summer enrollment, increased scholarship needs and rising operational costs in several areas. And you said it also reflects work already done to reduce ongoing expenses. That sounds rather bleak. Give us an overview of the recently approved budget. What was prioritized and what had to be left out?
Williams: Well, really, it goes back to last fall and spring. We knew from the spring of — the spring before last fall that we were going to have about a $3 million, $4 million deficit because of enrollment. And so, we had prepared for that, and the campus did a really good job at looking at what are the open positions we had, where we could cut back. But then when we got to the fall, our numbers were lower than projected. And so, we went through another $3 million freeze and then it ended up being a cut. So, we are — our budget is balanced. It does seem bleak, but we are following the same pattern as all other institutions in the nation. We've hit that enrollment cliff now. We've done a lot of exciting things to help with our enrollment right now. We hired our inaugural enrollment vice president who we're changing the way that we're doing things. And there's been a lot of changes and we're seeing an uptick. So, looking at this fall, it takes about 18 months once you make changes to really see, reap the benefits of bringing that new class in. And we're in new markets, we're in Dallas. We're in other places. We're really heavily recruiting right here in Springfield, which we had done, but not really deliberately or strategically.
We have focused as an institution primarily over headcount and not on degree seeking. We have flipped that with our new strategic plan going to the 30,000 by 2030. Seventeen thousand of those would be degree seeking, which would significantly enhance our budget. But looking at our budget right now, we did have to — when you have a 5% increase for tuition, then graduate assistants go up. And so, you'll see in the budget that we really buoyed up those areas for the students. And then with all these new buildings the COVID money was great. Our matching money was great, but we also have to upkeep those buildings. And so, you see in the budget that we, there was a lot of money that was towards that. And the other thing that's always an obligation is our faculty. Going through the tenure and promotion process, we are obligated for certain raises for those individuals. So, really those the budget that we had this year from the tuition increases was looking at inflationary, covering those costs, covering our faculty for their promotions and then all these new buildings that we're moving in, the maintenance and repair of those.
So, at this point, do you have any idea if enrollment will be up this fall? Can you say at all what that's going to look like?
Williams: So, right now we're looking at — we believe that we'll be up in first year students, but we continue to see a downward trend in our graduate and especially international. And so, we'll probably be close to flat again. But looking a year from now, because of the 18-month runway with all the new things that we're doing for enrollment, we believe that we'll start seeing that gradual increase in bringing students back. But it's really hard to tell right now because the international front is so different. All of a sudden, you didn't think you were getting students, and all of a sudden, their visas pass, and you can get them. And then graduate — our graduate program directors have done a great job at, if they have 10 slots, they're now accepting 15 or 20. So, we have those 10 slots filled. Instead of saying I'm accepting 10, and only six show up. So, we are seeing an increase, but we're hopeful that will be up this fall. But it's really hard to see.
Just kind of give us an idea of what the picture looks like for the next year for the university.
Williams: So, we know that Governor Kehoe has come out and said there's going to be a deficit in the state as well. So, we believe that it will probably be flat, but we were flat last year and so, a lot of the institutions of higher education are thinking that there will be cuts. Now, where we're optimistic is that, throughout the legislative session the house came out with a proposal of funding institutions per FTE. Now, we're the second to last university per FTE funding. What that would have meant last year had it gone through was $31 million of new core funding for Missouri State University. However, that would take $31 million from some other institution, and so, the senate came back and charged the department of education and workforce development with coming up with a funding formula, which we have been working on for 10 years, but they gave more direction of, we're not giving you more state funding. How are you as a system going to distribute the money equally? And so, we'll probably win in that. I don't know what that looks like, so we're optimistic looking forward that there's going to be a funding formula that finally treats us fairly like all the other institutions. But I think if we're looking at the governor and saying will there be funds for higher education? Looking at the current forecast, I'm not sure. Our goal will probably be to be flat or receive increases from this funding formula.
