Story by Lindsey Coleman, News Editor
As budget strains trickle down from the Kentucky Legislature, the Murray State community is bracing for economic challenges during the 2019 fiscal year.
State funding will be reduced by 6.25 percent.
Eliminating Health Services, outsourcing campus services, increasing tuition by 3 percent, closing some academic programs and reducing the current workforce are the decisions facing Murray State officials as the budget, revenue and pension bills at the state level reduce funding and increase expenditures.
At a Town Hall on April 6, President Bob Davies, Vice President of Finance and Administration Jackie Dudley and Provost Mark Arant outlined the university’s proposed budget to combat fiscal challenges, no matter what the final outcome of the budget bill may be.
“I will say that [the university] budget is evolving,” Davies said. “It is fluid. It is changing, just like many of the dynamics that we are facing. It is through this process that we need to hold dear to what makes Murray State special.”
To cut costs, Dudley said positions would be eliminated, parking passes would increase by 50 percent, the employee computer and bike loan programs would be eliminated, the cap on the number of sick days would be lowered to 20, private insurance carriers would be considered, waiver programs would be reviewed, the overtime budget would be reduced and vending funds would be reclassified.
Adjuncts would be reduced, and programs, though not disclosed yet, would be closed, reduced or structured. About 10-15 positions would be eliminated and 20-30 vacant positions would be eliminated.
The university is considering outsourcing many aspects of its services to cut costs. Requests for Proposals are pending for Dining Services, buildings and grounds services, postal services and the operational maintenance and rental fleets
“The goal will be to keep employment, to keep jobs, even though they may not be on Murray State’s payroll,” Dudley said.
As for Health Services, the university went through two RFP processes in the past several months.
“We just haven’t got the proposal that meets our need,” Dudley said. “Because of that, the president is recommending that we remove the funding for Health Services from our budget for fiscal year ‘19.”
If all of those areas were outsourced, 175 positions would not be on Murray State’s payroll.
Davies said the greatest opportunity to expand is through enrollment, which steers the university towards a model of privatization and leaning less on state funds.
“We will rely on public support, no question, for some base levels, but our model is now based almost squarely on enrollment,” Davies said.
The state budget bill allocates $31 million into a performance funding pool, which state-funded universities in Kentucky will compete for. Murray State expects to receive $1.5 million from the pool.
“We are entering a new dimension, where we control our fate in many ways, and that is through the performance funding model,” Davies said. “Even with performance funding and excellent results, we are becoming more and more reliant on those tuition dollars.”
At the June 8 Board of Regents meeting, budget plans for next year will be finalized.