VICTOR SCHMITT-BUSH
Assistant News Editor
With a structural deficit of $12.3 million dollars, the campus’ management team is doing its best to preserve the integrity and quality of higher education here at Fredonia. But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. Sacrifices will have to be made, and it’s not a matter of if, but when.
“Right now we are just collecting data,” said Dr. Terry Brown, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. “It’s the first step to our 2019-2020 PEPRE process.”
When it comes to elimination and reduction of the school’s state-funded programs and services, nothing other than the community bus service has been directly affected. Not much else is set in stone at the moment, but the campus management staff are serious. PEPRE, which stands for the Process for Emergency Program Reduction/ Elimination, should not be taken lightly. It was developed in 2010-2011 by a few select members of the University Senate Planning and Budget Committee, and it was meant to be implemented only as a last resort.
“I was part of that group,” said University President Virginia Horvath. “We were trying to figure out how we could develop a budgeting process that was clear and easy to understand. We wanted to be very clear what the criteria would be, and we wanted there to be opportunities for input from those that would be affected.”
According to Horvath, the document proposed by the Senate said, “Only if all other avenues had been tried would we look at something that might reduce the workforce.”
People might not lose their jobs, but many will have to accommodate for this change by doing something different. The goal is to reorganize and reduce. The management staff is doing their best to avoid eliminating services, if at all possible.
Horvath added, “Part of this budget reduction process is understanding that you don’t have to hire two different groups of people to do things if you already have existing people who can do those things.”
This explains why there is only one community bus now. Initially, the plan was to get rid of the community bus service altogether, but the management staff’s attempt to do so generated a lot of flak from students. PEPRE was not implemented in the budget plan for 2018- 2019, so the bus loop as it is now is much more indicative of how the PEPRE process will run.
“The bus loop was controversial,” said Horvath. “That was a person in an area saying, ‘I can cut this service because it is not really needed, and it is expensive. I’ll just cut it.’”
But it was clear that people were relying on it. Horvath explained that an anonymous source said, “I just signed up for an apartment in the townhouses and I did so with the expectation that the park and ride bus would take me to the Williams Center or to Maytum Hall.”
A petition was made successfully by students in the late Spring of 2018 to reestablish the community bus loop as a viable campus service, and the Vice President for Finance and Administration, Mike Metzger, decided instead to make a compromise with the students. In the spirit of the PEPRE process, he chose to save $100,000 by reducing the service instead of getting rid of it altogether.
This is an example of what is to come, but the management staff is not doing this because they want to. This has been incredibly difficult for everyone involved. Brown assures that the changes being made are done specifically with the interests of students and staff in mind.
“I know that we are going to do everything we can to preserve the quality of the student experience at Fredonia,” she said. “It may mean that we’ll need to make very difficult decisions. But it is with a vision of a future where this campus is thriving. That’s what we want. Carrying this structural deficit from year-to-year is holding us back as an institution.”
As of 2018-2019, Fredonia’s management staff have already made significant strides to tackle the school’s structural deficit.
“Last year, our goal was to cut $5 million from the operating budget, and we went through a whole process,” said Horvath. “We achieved a cut of more than $4 million out of the budget for this year [2018-2019]. This year, we need to cut another $3 million [2019-2020].”
According to Horvath, when closer to 90 percent of your budget is salary and personnel, and many of those positions have permanency, not just faculty but professionals, you don’t have a lot of flexibility.
This is because state universities, not just Fredonia, have been experiencing a downward trend in terms of receiving state-funded assistance for campus operations.
“One of the questions is, ‘Can you have a state university without the state? Is it public? At what point is it no longer public?’” said Brown. “Citizens really need to be aware that, even in a state like New York, where public support for higher education is generally high, even here it’s becoming nominal.”
As of now, state allocations are at a measly 12 percent, which is why tuition is so high, and a huge factor as to why Fredonia is experiencing such a large structural deficit.
“1978 was the last year that there were state appropriations at a high level,” said Horvath. “At that point, tuition was really low because the state covered 72 percent of the operating budget.”
Even so, Fredonia is making a commitment to each and every student.
“All students will be able to complete their program and get their credential,” said Brown. “If we decide that we are going to eliminate an academic program that currently has students, we would have a plan to, what we call, ‘Teach it Out’, where the program is phased out over time. If we’ve accepted you, we’ve made a commitment to you.”
This is important to take note of, especially for this year’s incoming freshmen.
“It’s so exciting to see the largest incoming class in our history,” said Brown. “I want to make sure that, in the years ahead, that they are able to enjoy a great institution. I want us to remain that way. They should have everything that they dream of when coming here.”