At the October 15, 2020 BOR Meeting, CSCU CFO Ben Barnes explained that the additional cuts were necessary in addition to the cuts already made in the revised budget to help preserve the reserves at each university. The impact of Covid-19 on enrollment, housing, and meal plan revenue, combined with the increasing cost of operations for Covid-19 related operating expenses, has resulted in a significant drawdown of reserves at each university. The combination of these factors resulted in Eastern Connecticut State University moving from a $5.8 million use of reserves to a use of $11.2 million. CFO Barnes also stated that there would be an opportunity to consider other areas for expense savings when the Mid-Year Budget was presented to the BOR in January 2021. This opened the opportunity to consider other areas to fulfill our $1.4 million reduction beyond the four areas identified in the BOR Resolution. We will review and consider for reduction the identified areas as well as expand the search for savings potential to all areas of the university.

Each Vice President will be asked to work with budget directors to review budgets in their division and identify the specific expense items that can be reduced to meet the overall savings of $1.4 million. Please work within your area and provide ideas of how you can assist them in reducing expenses. Some areas will be able to make significant contributions from expenses that will not move forward while operating under Covid-19, expenses such as travel and off-campus meetings.

We discussed in the Ad Hoc Budget Committee how we expect to see additional savings for student workers this year resulting from online only classes in the summer and the transition to online after Thanksgiving until the spring semester begins. We are not eliminating student workers who are in place today, but we do need to adjust our budget to recognize that the demand has decreased on the campus this year and many positions were never filled.

The Ad Hoc Budget Committee remains confident that Eastern will be able to reduce the budget and minimize the use of our reserves that we have worked so hard to establish. For more than a decade, Eastern Connecticut State University has successfully weathered fiscal challenges due to the sacrifices made by the faculty and staff, and those efforts are much appreciated.