Major budget cuts are expected at North Dakota State University.
Though officials haven’t yet put an exact number on the forthcoming cuts, the university is facing a projected $10.5 million budget shortfall over the next two years due to slumping enrollment, which is at a 15-year low according to The Forum, a local news outlet.
Dwindling enrollment and declining state funding—which is based on a formula that factors in student credit hours—make for a one-two punch that has left the institution reeling.
“These reductions will be difficult, particularly because we have been absorbing cuts for a number of years, forcing everyone to do more with less for quite some time,” President David Cook wrote Tuesday in an email to campus constituents outlining the budget challenges and underlying issues. “They also will be difficult because after a number of years of cutting, it is becoming more difficult to make reductions without impacting our core academic mission.”
Recommendations on the budget cuts are expected in January.
