During new President Harrison Keller's first Faculty Senate meeting at the University of North Texas, administrators said a dip in enrollment and increased costs call for belt tightening for 2024-25 and a new approach to budgeting going forward.
UNT Provost Michael McPherson said the university cut $8.5 million in spending for the 2024-25 year.
"The lion's share of that — as it should be — falls on academic affairs. I say it should be because we are the lion's share of the university," McPherson said. "So about $5.7 million [is what] we needed to come up with. My shop essentially was able to manage about 45% of that. The rest, unfortunately, had to come out of colleges."
McPherson said colleges started by not filling vacancies, some of which have been vacant for some time. Deans also deferred expenses that weren't urgent or mandatory.
"We're not talking about cutting positions," McPherson said. "We're not talking about laying off staff or faculty."
McPherson said the university hasn't eliminated classes or programs.
Administrators didn't say how much enrollment has dropped, and on Thursday a university spokesperson told the Denton Record-Chronicle that UNT is preparing an announcement about enrollment.
"With nearly 47,000 students enrolled this fall and more than 12,000 degrees awarded this past academic year, UNT continues to drive the North Texas economy as an educational engine," said Devynn Case, the university's director of media relations. "This fall's steady enrollment follows five years of leading statewide growth, positioning the university to focus strategically on delivering high-quality service, support and academic rigor."
Case said enrollment numbers are up 6.6% from fall 2023 among Black students. Enrollment numbers for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are up 4.74% from last fall, and Hispanic enrollment numbers are up 3.33%.
McPherson said the administration expects enrollment to rise again, at least for some time. Universities across the country are preparing for a "demographic cliff" brought about by a declining birth rate in the United States. UNT has managed to keep enrollment brisk in part by attracting international students to master's programs.
In the long term, UNT might expand its online offerings, and as the population shrinks, the university can appeal to adults who either want to pursue a new degree or finish one they started. But the brisk Texas economy still has the state booming.
"I believe this is a short-term issue," McPherson said. "We think there's reason to believe that enrollments will go back up. ... The enrollment drop mainly is at the graduate level, mainly at the master's level."
McPherson said faculty can help attract prospective graduate students to their master's programs.
The financial outlook called for a new view on budgeting.
"We're about a billion-dollar-a-year institution," said Keller, the new leader of the Denton campus. This week marked his first address to the UNT Faculty Senate, a body that represents the priorities, needs and concerns of the teaching ranks to the administration and the Board of Regents.
"At this point, of course, we have a little over 46,000 students," Keller said. "We've been using historical and incremental budgeting, and that makes it hard for us to focus resources around strategic priorities. It makes it hard for us to budget for contingencies."
Keller said he has charged the university's chief financial officer with developing a charter for budgeting.
"And we've assembled a project team, a steering committee and a technical committee around this project to develop and implement and do a strategic budgeting process for the university that would be much more transparent and give us the ability to align how we're budgeting with our goals for the university," Keller said.
Texas voters approved the new Texas University Fund last fall, giving four of the state’s public university systems access to a $3.9 billion permanent endowment.
UNT, Texas State University, Texas Tech University and the University of Houston weren't legally able to access the $30 billion Permanent University Fund, a deep pocket gilded by Texas oil and gas. Founded in 1876, the fund's largess was only available to the University of Texas and Texas A&M University.
Keller told faculty senators that, while he was the commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, he had a hand in designing the university fund. Should UNT reach select research criteria, it eventually could have access to $40 million.
Currently, the Texas University Fund gives UNT access to $16 million for research. While UNT's flagship research projects have been STEM projects, faculty in the humanities, performing and visual arts are also active in the university's research initiatives.
Keller said these developments should help UNT develop private funding to supplement state and federal dollars.