At Friday’s Board of Trustees Business and Finance meeting, administrators revealed that they have not drafted a plan for long-term budget planning.
Chief Business Officer Walt Branson and Interim Associate President in the Controller’s Office John Shipley gave a presentation to the board, in which they said they are “fairly confident” that Wright State will reach a $3 million surplus.
Doug Fecher, chair of the board, said that there could potentially be risks involved with that surplus and asked Branson and Shipley what those might be.
Following Fecher’s comments, Trustee Bruce Langos said that there needs to be initiatives in place to increase revenue and that the university should have a plan of action if it does not manage to do so. He also said that revenue would likely decline.
“We don’t have all the actions or initiatives in place to try to drive more revenue yet,” Langos said. “You’re going to have to have a plan to address a broader amount of savings than what you’re addressing today because [revenue] is going to continue to decline.”
Langos asked to see predictions on the university’s budget for next year anticipating a decline in revenue. Shipley said that process had been started, but was unprepared to show it to the board, saying that it is “not in a format that is ready to present.”
“Frankly, there has never been a long-reach budget plan,” Shipley said. “There is nothing in place to work with – we’re starting from scratch.”
In response to a question from Austin Rains, a student trustee, Shipley said he will continue to work on a three-year budget projection. He said that the final model will allow administrators to “tinker with all the variables.”
Rains said that it is “great to hear” that the university is drafting such a model for the first time.
