A projected extra $2.5 million in tuition revenue this year will likely help pay for an unexpected $11 million increase in the university’s natural gas bill rather than go toward student and academic services as administrators had hoped.
The university is on track for such an increase in tuition revenue because more students than expected have enrolled at the university this year, said John Blair, director of the Budget and Fiscal Analysis office.
The extra tuition revenue served as an opportunity for the university to finally restore some programs and staff positions that were cut after state budget cuts several years ago. But the news of a 100 percent increase in natural gas prices crushed any hopes among university administrators of the money paid by students going directly to student programs.
“We’d rather have it go into student services,” said university President Dan Mote. “Our choice is not to use it to heat the rooms.”
With a $50 million natural gas bill looming this year – $11 million of which exceeded the planned budget due to skyrocketing costs after the Gulf Coast hurricanes – administrators say there is no other way to pay.
While planning the budget last year, administrators thought enrollment was going to be low. They compensated for the expected low enrollment numbers by increasing student fees, said Provost Bill Destler.
Administrators have not decided where they will get enough money to pay for the entire gas bill increase, but it will come from scattered sources throughout the budget.
Destler said he would have liked to use the extra revenue to go toward student services, such as expanding programs and filling vacancies administrators had to cut after the state cut more than $120 million in university funding in 2002 and 2003.
The university planned for 3,850 freshmen and about 4,100 enrolled, Mote said. Administrators didn’t have much time to decide their plans for the excess money, Blair said.
“It kind of both came at the same time,” Blair said. “As we were getting our fall numbers, we were getting our fall utility bills.”
The numbers are projections for the year, and the natural gas bill may go down if prices drop but that is not expected to happen, Blair said.
Even though the university had an excess in enrollment revenue, the university still lags by about $3,500 behind its five peer institutions in per student funding.
Student Government Association President Andrew Rose said the excess tuition revenue will still be useful even though the money isn’t going directly toward student programs.
“If [the university] has the money available, I think it has to be used for the services that we have,” Rose said. “I don’t think we’re in a position to increase services. I think, in this time, we have to sustain our services.”
The tuition revenue surplus also helped the university pay to enroll more than 140 students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, who were granted tuition waivers if they already paid at their home school.
But in some ways, the tuition revenue surplus will go toward benefiting students, said Jack Baker, director of Operations and Maintenance.
“If we can’t keep our facilities operating, we can’t teach, we can’t do research,” Baker said. “We can’t get away from paying our utility bills … and that does support students.”
Contact reporter Laurie Au at lauriedbk@gmail.com.
