After approving a three-month temporary budget in June, University of Toledo board members will consider another temporary budget — this time for six months — to get them through a majority of the 2020-21 academic year.
Details about the budget proposal haven’t been released, and UT officials wouldn’t release them Friday, with one spokesman saying the chief financial officer would provide details Monday during a presentation.
Documents provided with the agenda show officials are seeking another temporary budget because of the financial strain caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials say it’s unknown whether face-to-face instruction will continue or what the overall effect will be on state funding and other revenues and operations.
“University leaders have been working tirelessly to address the deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other market forces while prioritizing student success and mission-critical operations and identifying opportunities for increased efficiency,” according to a draft resolution. “Despite these efforts, numerous factors still require clarity.”
If approved, a permanent budget would be presented to the board during its December meeting.
The board typically approves its budget for the next fiscal year at the end of June, but opted to approve a roughly $171.8 million temporary budget through September, with plans at that time to approve a final budget this month after students returned. University officials at that time were predicting a $36 million budget shortfall going into the next fiscal year because of the coronavirus and subsequent stay-at-home order earlier this year.
In April, officials said those financial losses from the shutdown included $4 million in refunds for housing and dining plans, approximately $2.5 million in lost revenue in auxiliaries, and an estimated $5 million decline in projected tuition and fee revenue because of the expected decline in summer enrollment as well as increased expenses related to moving classroom instruction online.
Since reopening this August, UT reported last week that its total student population is down by more than 1,000 compared to last year with an enrollment of 18,438 students — a decrease of roughly 7 percent from the 19,782 enrollment reported in fall, 2019.
That’s the steepest decline in the past five years, with enrollment generally dropping between less than 1 percent and 2.5 percent year-to-year since 2016.
A challenging year
At a time when colleges and universities nationwide were first tackling budget and enrollment challenges because of the coronavirus, then-UT president Sharon Gaber announced in April she was resigning to take a job as chancellor at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
She left for that job in early July.
Her contract was supposed to run through 2023 and calls for six months written notice of resignation. Ms. Gaber submitted her resignation letter to the board on May 12 — less than two months before her final day.
Dr. Gregory Postel — the former interim president at the University of Louisville and the school’s former executive vice president for health affairs — took over as interim UT president July 6.
The leadership change also came about while UT officials and members of the South Toledo community were at odds over the future of the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital. UT officials have said the hospital is reporting steep financial losses — including a more than $25 million budget deficit — and has become unsustainable.
In mid-April, the university announced it was exploring options to sell or lease the medical college — a move that has angered state lawmakers and UTMC supporters from the South Toledo community.
For more than a year, they’ve argued UTMC has suffered financially in large part because of a 2015 affiliation agreement between the university and ProMedica, which they say resulted in a large number of UTMC faculty and hospital residents being moved to ProMedica’s flagship Toledo Hospital, leaving the public teaching hospital a shell of its former self.
Since that time, UT officials announced in July they were tabling those plans indefinitely, in part because of an influx in federal money they believe will help offset some of UTMC’s financial burdens.
Carty Finkbeiner, a former Toledo mayor who heads the Save UTMC coalition, said last week Dr. Postel and UT Chairman Alfred Baker met via teleconference with local and state lawmakers, as well as other UTMC supporters, to discuss UTMC.
Although he’s still concerned about UTMC’s future, Mr. Finkbeiner said he came away from the meeting feeling, for the first time, that the university and community were getting on the same page.
“it was an extremely positive, forward looking conversation about the future of UTMC,” Mr. Finkbeiner said.
The Blade submitted a request last week to UT to speak with Dr. Postel and Mr. Baker, but they weren’t made available.
Meanwhile, UT board members are slated to meet starting at 11 a.m. Monday via video conference, with three committee meetings planned before the board’s noon meeting to consider the temporary budget. But the board meeting might not begin until much later in the day. In June, the board didn’t convene for its final meeting until after 6 p.m.
Those wanting to view the UT board meeting can click here. The meeting access code is 172 757 8121 and the password is botseptember2020. To listen to the meeting via telephone, call 1-415-655-0002 and type in the same meeting access code.
Anyone having difficulty can call UT at 419-530-2410 or email Meghan Cunningham at meghan.cunningham@utoledo.edu.
First Published September 20, 2020, 10:58 p.m.
