Indiana State University students will see a 1.2% overall increase in housing and dining costs in 2023-24 for a traditional residence hall room and standard meal plan, following approval by the board of trustees Friday.

Also, in planning for next year’s budget, ISU is projecting no increase in enrollment compared to fall 2022.

“We budget very conservatively,” said Diann McKee, ISU senior vice president for finance and administration.

Housing/dining costs

Traditional housing, which would go from $7,450 this year to $7,525 next year, represents the majority of on-campus rooms and is where freshmen are assigned. A standard meal plan would increase from $3,900 to $3,958. For those requesting single rooms, the added cost is $1,500, which hasn’t changed. Part of the increase is to offset the rising costs of food. “That cost has increased dramatically,” McKee told the trustee finance committee. The rest of the increase, along with planned housing budget reductions of about $1.8 million for 2023-24, “will help provide financial stability for the housing and dining system,” she said.

To minimize rate increases, ISU will reduce supplies and expenses and reallocate vacant positions to provide a balanced budget, McKee said in explaining the $1.8 million budget reduction.

“There are no displacements of staff,” she said.

“Only vacant staff lines are being reallocated.”

Budget anticipates flat enrollment

McKee also provided a budget planning update for 2023-24; that budget planning is based no enrollment increase for the upcoming academic year.

The university won’t know its funding levels from the state until the end of the legislative session in April; trustees will finalize a two-year budget and act on tuition rates in June.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education and governor’s budget recommend a 6% increase in state funding the first year of the biennium and an additional 2% the second year for an overall 8% increase over the two-year state budget.

“That’s the most new dollars for higher education in decades,” McKee said. “We are very grateful” for these recommendations.

The commission also recommends nonbinding tuition and fee targets, although the final decision is made by trustees.

McKee noted the state’s outcome based performance funding model is changing and looks at three main criteria: enrollment, completion and economic, with goals and metrics for each.

Those state goals include increasing the number of high school graduates attending college, especially at-risk freshmen, and increasing adult enrollment; increasing the percentage of Hoosiers with a high-value post secondary credential; and keeping more college graduates in Indiana.

“We have a long way to go” with determining how these metrics and funding will implemented, McKee said.

The state higher education institutions hope to have more direction by the end of April.

The new performance funding model is more forward looking compared to the one that has been used, which looked at past data that might extend back as much as 10 years, McKee said.

Also, funding the old model involved across-theboard reallocations from each institution’s operating budget and adding back new dollars based on meeting performance targets.

ISU trustees will approve their budget and tuition rates in June.

Faculty concerns over cuts

During the trustees regular meeting, James Gustafson, faculty senate chairman, expressed “frustration and anxiety from the faculty over restructuring and communication surrounding that. We lost several instructors and instructional staff with layoffs, which is painful for our colleagues and students, but I also worry about the people who remain.”

The provost has issued statements and newsletter pieces that outline some of the problems higher education is facing generally and that ISU is dealing with specifically over enrollment and budget issues, but in general terms.

“We still really need a clear and positively-defined vision for how that translates into the future of ISU, and connects the dots a little more for everyone on how the changes being made will help us better attract and educate students,” Gustafson said.

“Without that, the changes being made read as a list of open-ended budget cuts,” he said. “We don’t want to be here doing this again next year.”
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