MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University officials have made it clear in recent days that lower enrollment and high inflation have had a significant impact on the university’s revenue and costs will be have to be reduced.
WVU Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Rob Alsop said what WVU is going to through is happening across the country and all institutions of higher learning are resetting their balance sheets.
“While it’s going to be hard, we have the same budgetary pressures that everyone else has,” Alsop said during an appearance Friday on MetroNews “Talkline.” “This is our time, as President Gee indicated, to innovate and think about the future.”
WVU announced earlier this week that it’s going to cut $35 million out of its fiscal year 2024 budget. The number represents about three percent of the university’s overall budget. The cuts will be deeper if student enrollment continues to decline.
Alsop said that nearly two decades ago people started having fewer children, shrinking the available pool of seniors in recent years and years to come. Add a pandemic, student debt concerns and questions about the value of a college degree and the math becomes clear.
Projections show the number of available high school seniors will continue to fall for the next five years.
“It’s a pretty simple equation,” Alsop stated. “If we have fewer students, fewer customers that enter the institution, that means fewer employees, and that means fewer programs.”
.@jrobalsop joins @DaveWilsonMN to discuss @WestVirginiaU‘s budget. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/lnQRy3kQ52
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) March 31, 2023
Alsop said WVU needs a larger market share of the available student pool. They’ll continue to recruit West Virginia and other traditional areas like New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio but also plan to add other areas. No matter the area, Alsop said they need to increase enrollment by any amount across the board.
“And there are only 8,000 seniors graduating from those markets in five years, so if we get 20 percent of the market share today, to keep the same number of students if the pool is smaller, we need to get 25 percent of that market,” Alsop said.
If enrollment continues to miss the mark they’ll have to be more cuts, Alsop said.
“If we don’t beat our enrollment targets, it would need to come from expense reduction,” Alsop said. “What part of that is supplies and services and what part of that is salaries from a personnel perspective, we’re still working through, but it will be a combination of both.”
Alsop acknowledged tough decisions are in the future but maintains WVU leaders recognized the issue quickly. He said the quick response gives the institution time to reposition and resize and continue to be a partner to communities and businesses.
“While it’s challenging, it also can be exhilarating to think about how important our institution is, and we need to keep that front and center of what we can continue to mean for the state of West Virginia.”