Cady Short-Thompson, the president of Northern Kentucky University, says the school could lose more than $8.5 million in state funding over the next two years if the current version of Kentucky's budget bill becomes law. The biennial budget proposal, House Bill 500, is currently working its way through the Senate.
Speaking to NKU's Board of Regents Wednesday morning, Short-Thompson warned the school's leadership that over the next few months, they'll have to get creative and make some difficult decisions about how the institution should operate to reduce expenses and become financially sustainable in the long term.
"We are not shrinking our mission. We are concentrating on it," she said. "NKU will not preserve every structure and program, but we will preserve the purpose that called us here. And as we focus on what we do best, we will also focus on the hard work of identifying things that we will stop doing. We have to be willing to eliminate lower-impact, under-subscribed initiatives and programs. We will make hard choices."
The potential loss of millions from the state comes less than a year after NKU passed its first balanced operating budget in several years. At one point, the university had a $24 million deficit, but managed to reduce it largely through faculty and staff layoffs and by raising student tuition and fees each year.
Collin Jarrell, student body president and a student member of the Board of Regents, spoke out against the rising tuition and fees during the meeting Wednesday, saying Kentucky's lack of interest in funding education is putting an even heavier burden on students.
"It very much concerns me that the state does not invest in higher education," Jarrell said. "We will be forced to re-evaluate and raise our costs even more dramatically to make up for it."
NKU is not alone in its concern over the budget bill. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy says House Bill 500 will cut funding for postsecondary education statewide by 16% compared to the state's last budget.
In a letter released earlier this week, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto says the proposed biennial budget will directly affect UK's ability to maintain the academic programs, support services and research work students are accustomed to.
Kentucky's current legislative session ends April 15.
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