BROCKPORT, N.Y. — According to an email from SUNY Brockport President Heidi MacPherson, the college is feeling the impact of a global pandemic almost a year after it shut the world down.
MacPherson says that finances are a big concern this semester. Even before the pandemic, enrollment numbers at SUNY Brockport were declining. Now, it’s enough to cause financial strain. She says far fewer students returned to campus this semester — some because of financial concerns, and others due to the desire to pursue a gap semester in hopes that the fall 2021 semester will be more similar to the fall of 2019.
Due to the decline in enrollment and the pandemic, the college is facing a large and growing budget gap of $10 million. MacPherson says that this is a painful message to hear, but it’s nothing surprising. She reiterated what she had written in her fall convocation speech.
“The fiscal impact of COVID-19 has hit SUNY campuses at a time of already declining enrollment, due to demographic shifts that we have not been able to continue to counteract, and that means we have fewer resources to do the jobs we do. The likelihood is, our campus will shrink over the next few years, both in terms of student numbers and in terms of offices, departments and programs that support them. We’re fortunate that we have had a strong focus on our campus’s fiscal health over the last five years, and we proactively put in place a number of safeguards that stemmed the initial budget deficit problems we faced in 2015 — but no one could have predicted what 2020 would bring, and faced with a global pandemic, our efforts have not been enough. We have reserves — thankfully, since so many campuses, both public and private, do not — but they will be depleted if we use a business-as-usual attitude. The next few years will not be business as usual. There will be fewer vacancies filled; fewer new initiatives funded; and fewer opportunities to travel or get off-campus professional development. That’s why our Joint Planning and Budget Committee instigated a task force over the summer and that’s why every spending decision will be scrutinized this year like no year before.”
SUNY Brockport President Heidi MacPherson
To combat the growing budget gap, the JPBC meets weekly to review any opportunities to make savings and takes those recommendations to the Cabinet. The Cabinet also meets weekly to review COVID-19 expenditures, requisition requests and vacancy lists.
The Cabinet recently made the decision to drop the college’s national memberships of the Council of Higher Education Accreditation, the American Council on Education, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The move will decrease the college’s annual institutional membership costs by almost $25,000.
MacPherson also placed an emphasis on the need for retention of current students, as a loss of 100 students means a $1 million loss for the college.
