Budget adjusts to dip in enrollment

By Matt Weafer
The Broadcast

Despite the dip in enrollment this semester, filling in the gaps in the 2005-2006 budget is just another day at the abacus for Director of Business and Finance Dale Cecil.

“It’s the same as any other year,” Cecil said. “You make a budget and the next day things change.”

“Our real focus,” Brescia President Sr. Vivian Marie Bowles said, “is how to increase enrollment, because the revenue is tuition driven.”

The enrollment drop did affect the budget and according to Sr. Vivian, the Cabinet and other administration members are examining every department and every possible avenue.

“We’re working on plans,” Sr. Vivian said, “and there is not anything we’re doing that should have any affect on students.”

“I don’t see us coming up with one big plan,” Cecil said. “We will look anything and everything.”

According to Cecil a budget is only a skeleton or guideline for the university. “If you treat it as set in stone, you miss out on opportunities,” he said. “You spend more on things not budgeted and less on budgeted things. It never becomes worthless; you just have to adjust.”

Although there are no major cuts decided yet, Sr. Vivian said, “Division Chairs were asked to look carefully before hiring adjunct faculty.”

An adjunct faculty member is an instructor hired only when necessary. Sr. Vivian said, “When a full-time faculty member has a full load of classes, then we try to find a competent adjunct.”

By not having an adjunct instructor, she said, students will possibly benefit more, by having a full-time instructor more qualified in the area conduct the class.

“I think that everyone here is being very interested and collaborative in finding ways that we can save on our budget this year,” Sr. Vivian said, “like turning out lights and not running water unnecessarily—cutting back on utilities especially since the prices are going up across the nation.”

According to Sr. Vivian, Brescia’s budget adjustments are mediocre compared to other colleges. One college, she said, cut 17 full-time positions. “That’s not in the plans at all,” she said.