Looks like it’s time to start making some difficult decisions.
The WyoFile reports:
University of Wyoming faces $15 million budget shortfallAfter a hand-wringing legislative session that put tens of millions in University of Wyoming funding in peril, the state’s lone four-year school is facing yet another fiscal hurdle — a roughly $15 million shortfall in operating money.While overall university funding has increased from state appropriations, most of those dollars can only be used in specific ways, leaving the school in need of money it can use flexibly for routine operating expenses.University leaders kicked off the school’s 2027 budget process last week with this news.“We are really grateful to the Legislature this year for funding, pretty much fully funding, our budget, and the governor supporting that, and really supporting the university,” University of Wyoming Trustee Laura Schmid-Pizzato noted within moments of starting the two-day budget hearing. “With that said, we are facing some budget shortfalls.”The $15 million shortfall stems from enrollment decline, inflation and reduced investment income, outgoing University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel said at the hearing. In a message Seidel sent to the UW Leadership Team ahead of the meeting, the president explained that net tuition revenue is less than previously projected. Utility and core infrastructure costs continue to rise. Investment income, which is less available than in previous years, can’t pay for recurring expenses.“They just all conspired this year to kind of create the situation that we have,” Seidel said at the budget hearing.These challenges aren’t unique to UW. For years, falling birth rates have foreshadowed a “demographic cliff” that would lead to a drop-off in college applicants. Seidel said at the hearing that the school will have to “fight very, very hard” just to “tread water with enrollment,” given that there are simply fewer college-age people.
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