By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University expects about $3.1 million from the governor’s decision to reverse planned budget cuts for education.
The $260 million in cuts will result in $160 million to public education and $100 million to higher education.
BGSU’s Chief Financial Officer Sheri Stoll said she is still reconciling the numbers and expects BGSU will receive at least $3.1 million.
“Basically, for next fiscal year, it will allow us to fund our contractually obligated faculty salary increases,” she said. “That’s helpful.”
In a statement informing its members of the increase in funding, the BGSU-Faculty Association attributed the action to “an improved financial picture in the past several months, supported by sales tax receipts that remained strong during the pandemic.”
It noted that an update presented to trustees in December showed a positive financial situation, due in part to the layoffs of faculty members last spring.
“We welcome the recent positive financial news from the state, and we continue to press the administration for retention of faculty and academic programs that constitute BGSU’s greatest strengths,” the letter continued.
Stoll said as beneficial as the restoration of this is, the university still faces budget challenges because of a smaller freshman class enrolled in fall, 2020.
Because of the pandemic that class was about 300 students fewer than would have been expected. That results in decreased revenue from tuition. That deficit would continue through the next four years as that small class heads toward graduation.
The only way to make it up would be to offset it with additional transfer students, but that does not appear likely, Stoll said.
She said that as a representative of the university and personally, she is very appreciative of the restoration of the funds. “This has been a difficult time working through the pandemic,” she said. She credits Gov. Mike DeWine and state Chancellor for Higher Education Randy Gardner.
“It’s hard to express how grateful, how thankful, we are for the governor finding a way to make this happen. We know that the chancellor has so much to do with this. His advocacy for higher education should not be unrecognized, I don’t know how else to say it.”
