The fiscal year 2020 budget was recently announced by MU Chancellor Alexander Cartwright and Vice Chancellor for Finance Rhonda Gibler. The budget will be in effect starting July 1, 2019 until June 30, 2020.
In his email sent campus-wide on April 19, Cartwright reflected on the achievements the university had in the past fiscal year, including the first Nobel prize in the school history, grants, new facilities and an increase in freshmen enrollment.
According to a news release from MU News Bureau, in the 2019 fiscal year, the cost of housing, dining and books went down for more than 80% of MU students and more money was invested in scholarships and other financial aids.
“Our strategies and priorities have to drive our budget in order to keep that momentum going,” Cartwright said in the news release. “For the upcoming year, we will continue to make changes to our budget that focus on supporting our priorities of affordability, research success and employee recognition.”
Due to the tight budget of fiscal year 2020, Cartwright said in his email that there will be a reallocation of around $25 million. The administrative offices, primarily the Office of the Chancellor and the Office of Advancement, will take on the highest reductions of around 10%. On average the reductions to university divisions will be less than 5%.
Additionally, there will be a 9.9% reduction on the Office of the Provost and a 7.6% reduction on the Office of Finance, according to MU News Bureau.
Out of the reallocated money, $9.6 million will go to scholarships, $10.5 million will go to employee performance and promotion raises and $4.6 million will support research, which includes new centers of excellence, faculty retention and support for the Artist-in-Residence program, according to MU News Bureau.
Cartwright also emphasized that deans and department chairs will be communicating with corresponding students and faculties soon with how the reductions might affect them.
Cartwright stressed that they are continuing to work on making the administrative offices more efficient and to better support resources on academics, researches, faculties and staffs.
“The university is strong financially,” he said. “We are making these decisions to refocus our priorities, ensure operations continue in a financially responsible manner and make sure we continue to address the needs of the states and our students.”
_Edited by Laura Evans | levans@themaneater.com_