Financial models show that, without significant changes, Indiana University will be operating at a net loss by 2020. By 2021, the loss is expected to be about $70 million.
That information was part of a presentation University Treasurer Don Lukes gave to the IU Board of Trustees at its meeting last week. Lukes told the board the expected loss is not a new revelation.
“Last year, the numbers were rather similar,” he said.
Lukes also offered a plan to avoid the shortfall, but the report was still cause for consternation among some members of the board. Trustees asked whether goals for the university’s Bicentennial in 2020 were still feasible and whether new construction projects should be postponed. One trustee used the presentation as an opportunity to highlight the relationship between tuition and state support.
A graph presented to the trustees earlier in the day showed state appropriations accounting for about 22 percent of IU’s total revenue in 2007, while student fees and tuition accounted for about 28 percent. In 2016, state appropriations were down to about 18 percent, while student fees and tuition were up to 38 percent. After the presentation, Trustee Patrick Shoulders said when he was a student at IU in the 1970s, state appropriations accounted for about 70 percent of total revenue.
“It’s become a political rallying cry that college must remain affordable,” he said. “All the while, there’s relatively less state support.”
Board chairman James Morris had a different outlook. He expressed gratitude to the state legislature for the financial support it has provided.