K-State cutting budgets in every department, but it won’t raise tuition for Kansans

Every department at Kansas State University is going to have to cut at least 4% out of this coming school year’s budget to make up for lost tuition dollars coupled with rising operation costs.

University President Richard Myers announced the cuts this week in a campus-wide memo.

“This next fiscal year will be challenging from a budget perspective which is causing us to make difficult but important decisions,” Myers said. “We ask for your support in making these budget adjustments.”

Departments have not yet announced where they will make the cuts, but university officials said in some cases it could mean a staff reduction.

“We will be looking at vacancies and reducing planned expenditures,” said Ethan Erickson, K-State’s chief financial officer.

Even though the state has provided additional funding for several university initiatives, including partial payment for a 2.5% cost of living boost for employees, overall the university has to reduce its operating budget by 4.3%, or about $12 million.

“This year’s reductions come on the heels of multiple years of budget cuts for the university,” Myers said in his memo. “Over the last six years, we will have removed at least $47 million from our operating budget.”

K-State’s total budget last year was about $899 million. The university is still building the budget for fiscal year 2020, which began July 1.

Myers’ announcement comes two weeks after the Kansas Board of Regents announced that tuition at all six of its four-year public universities — University of Kansas, Pittsburg State, Wichita State, Fort Hays State, Emporia State and K-State — would remain flat for the coming academic year.

The Regents had asked the state to restore $50 million in funding for state universities after multiple state funding cuts over the past decade.

“The Legislature added $34 million to state universities this year, but the universities remain $31 million below the 2009 level of state funding,” according to a Regents press release.

While K-State is increasing tuition 1.5 percent for undergraduates who don’t live in the state and for all graduate students, Erickson said that keeping tuition level for other students represents about a $1.2 million loss in revenues for the school.

K-State out-of-state undergraduates will pay a little more than $25,250 a year in tuition. Tuition revenue provides approximately 26% of K-State’s total funding, Myers said.

Enrollment has been shrinking at universities across the region.

KU will increase tuition for graduate and out-of-state undergraduate students by 2.5%. New full-time undergraduates who are not Kansas residents will pay about $27,000 a year — two semesters — in tuition.

KU enrollment has been sliding for about a decade. Last year’s enrollment declines were concentrated at the Lawrence campus while there was growth at KU’s medical school and its Edwards Campus in Johnson County. In the last nine years the Lawrence and Edwards campuses have lost about 8 percent enrollment.

KU officials will raise some campus fees. Officials were not available Wednesday to talk about possible spending cuts.talk with The Star about other strategies the university may take on cut spending.

Last year K-State saw a slight increase — about 102 students — in enrollment.

Erickson said the university anticipates a slight enrollment drop in the fall due to an overall dip in college participation in Kansas and a “population decline.”

K-State plans to beef up recruitment in nearby states, such as Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Myers called “enrollment management strategies, the lifeblood of our university” and said K-State is investing $2.1 million in scholarship programs and $1.3 million to accelerate marketing efforts.