BU Considers Program, Personnel Cuts
Bluefield University leaders are considering a number of personnel and academic program cuts in an effort to address a series of budget shortfalls.
According to President David Olive, the university has struggled to achieve a balanced budget for several years as a result of missed enrollment targets in both the undergraduate traditional program and the undergraduate online program. Federal funds designed to assist struggling businesses during COVID have helped the university cover those losses, but additional measures are now needed, Dr. Olive said.
“Each year we have attempted to modify our budgets and reduce our expenses to match our revenues,” the president said, “but we have been unsuccessful in closing the revenue-expenditure gaps solely on our own.”
In addition to missed enrollment targets, Dr. Olive said institutional scholarship expenses have increased.
“When institutional scholarships are subtracted from revenue received from tuition, we have seen a stair-stepping decline in net tuition revenue over the past few years,” he said. “The combination of fewer students and less net tuition revenue has created the gaps between our revenues and expenditures.”
Now needing more than COVID relief funds to address the budget shortfalls, BU leaders are looking for ways to increase revenues and decrease expenditures. Among the expenditure areas being considered for potential cuts are personnel and institutional scholarships — the university’s two largest expenditure categories. Expenditure cuts are also being considered in the area of academic programs, the president said, but with the hope of creating “the least amount of impact on (the) educational offerings and co-curricular experiences for…students.”
“Work restructuring and retooling majors with low enrollments and low numbers of graduates has been ongoing…in order to operate in the most efficient and effective manner that we can,” Dr. Olive said. “Several different models/plans have been prepared…for the Board’s consideration. Some of these models/plans do involve closing low enrollment and low graduate programs in order to make way for new and in-demand degrees.”
But, Dr. Olive went on to say, no decisions regarding program and personnel cuts have been made (as of 04-20-22); the Board of Trustees is still considering the options and will make decisions when it meets later in April. The president added that should any academic program be terminated, it will only be for new students enrolling at Bluefield University. All current students will receive teach-out opportunities to complete the major they are seeking to complete.
“The Board of Trustees and university leadership take seriously the current financial situation in which we find ourselves,” Dr. Olive said. “The institution, however, is not in jeopardy of closing. On the contrary, the institution is taking steps to make adjustments in operations and continue the development of degree programs that appeal to today’s students that prepare them for careers in high-demand jobs. With the collaborative partnerships with VCOM (Virginia College of Osteophathic Medicine) and the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, we have a bright future as we enter into the next 100 years of Christian higher education.”
Dr. Olive noted that the COVID pandemic “has not been good to the institution,” but that regardless of those challenges improving the university’s financial position in the years to come is going to require recruiting and enrolling more students.
“Over the past several years we have declined in our traditional enrollment, as well as in our online programs,” he said. “In past budgets, we had the benefit of excess revenues provided by online programs to help underwrite our on-campus experience; that surplus is no longer present. This has required us to significantly adjust our budgeting for the next year. We still have some work to complete, and those conversations will be held as the Board of Trustees meets this spring.”