Mearns not optimistic about restoration of state funding cuts to state universities

00;00;00;02 - 00;00;27;18 Stan Sollars This is Indiana Public Radio news. Good morning, I'm Stan Sollars. Spring semester is well underway here at Ball State this week at a snowy start, with classes shifting to online due to winter storm Fern. It's also true lawmakers at the statehouse are fully in gear with the legislative session at a snowy crossroads. Are the funding cuts for state universities 5% and then another 5% to be held back, possibly restored? 00;00;27;18 - 00;00;49;03 Stan Sollars But the state's coffers have a much-larger-than-anticipated increase in tax receipts, putting the state in the black by the billions. Will state university funding be restored? To help answer that question, Ball State President Geoff Mearns returns for another installment of the Ball State Update. President Mearns, welcome back and a belated Happy New Year. 00;00;49;05 - 00;00;52;06 President Mearns Happy New Year to you, Stan, and good morning to everyone who's listening. 00;00;52;06 - 00;01;01;19 Stan Sollars Good morning indeed. In regard to state funding, will it be a happy New Year for the state's universities? What does it look like for that 5% in the other 5%? 00;01;01;20 - 00;01;31;12 President Mearns Well, so just a little bit of context, as your listeners may recall, last April, in the final days of that biennial budget session, the budget for higher education at that point looked like it was going to essentially be flat in terms of our operating appropriation. And then I think it was mid-April. There was a dismal revenue forecast, which caused the General Assembly when they approved the final budget to reduce operating appropriations for all of public higher education. 00;01;31;12 - 00;01;52;28 President Mearns And that, as you mentioned in your comments a moment ago, it was a 5%, 5% reduction in our operating appropriation, plus an additional 5% that was held back by the governor. And the impact on us here at Ball State was a net loss of nearly million. So, as you also suggested, the December revenue forecast was much more favorable. 00;01;52;28 - 00;02;24;10 President Mearns And I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think it was maybe at least .1 billion more revenue than it previously previously forecast. But to be a realist, I don't anticipate that in this short session that they'll restore any funding for this fiscal year or for next fiscal year. This is a short session, not a budget session. And it's my understanding and my experience that it's very, very unlikely that the General Assembly will reopen that to your budget. 00;02;24;10 - 00;02;41;27 President Mearns So we're monitoring the process to see if there's any opportunity for that. But I don't know. I'm not really hopeful in that regard. So we're really focusing our advocacy efforts on the next biennial budget. That's the legislative session that will begin in January of 27, a year from now. 00;02;42;00 - 00;02;47;02 Stan Sollars Well, how is Ball State's financial condition as we speak? 00;02;47;04 - 00;03;21;21 President Mearns So this reduction in our operating appropriations put some stress on the operating budget. But when we look at the long term financial condition of the university, we're going to be able to weather this short term budget challenge because of our strong financial position. And, you know, I've been saying that another settings and it's not just me saying that, you know, because every year, our financial position, our statements and all those other information, that information is evaluated by two credit rating agencies, S&P Global and Moody's. 00;03;21;21 - 00;04;01;06 President Mearns So last year, around this time in February of 25, S&P global assessed assessed our financial position in a publicly available report. They assessed our financial position as extremely strong. Those aren't my words. Those those are their words. We also were reviewed around that same time, either in February or January by Moody's, another credit rating agency. And according to their rating, there's only one other institution in the MAC, which is, we consider our peers only one other institution in the MAC that has a better credit rating than we do, and that's the University at Buffalo, which is part of the SUNY (State University of New York) system. 00;04;01;06 - 00;04;09;13 President Mearns So our long term financial position is strong. We just need to tackle this short term problem to maintain that long term strength. 00;04;09;19 - 00;04;19;29 Stan Sollars What does that look like in the classroom? Possible layoffs, reductions in supplies and equipment. The S&P budget. 00;04;20;00 - 00;05;03;09 President Mearns So we have embarked, as you're aware, stand in the fall with a consultative planning process. So we've asked each division and each college within Academic Affairs to develop and make recommendations about how they can reduce operating expenses without impairing our core mission commitment to our students. So we have received all of those proposals, and now there's a small group of us who are looking at those proposals to try to ensure that we can develop a balanced operating budget for next fiscal year, which would include a recurring compensation increase for outstanding faculty and staff while making those expense reductions. 00;05;03;09 - 00;05;13;07 President Mearns In order to do that, but maintaining our commitment and the quality of the education that we provide to our students and the student services that we provide to support their experience on our campus. 00;05;13;09 - 00;05;16;25 Stan Sollars So it doesn't look like layoffs or anything of that sort for staff. 00;05;16;26 - 00;05;21;26 President Mearns I can't I can't rule that out, but that would be the last resort. 00;05;21;29 - 00;05;41;02 Stan Sollars Well, shifting over to the weather and we had a nice beginning to the workweek with with the snow and cold in a pivot over to online classes, the university's weather response. What are the criteria for switching over to digital or an outright closing? 00;05;41;04 - 00;05;51;00 President Mearns Yeah. So yeah. And Stan, I don't know whether you should be held responsible for this cold weather. You predicted it. So maybe you can do a little better with next week. 00;05;51;00 - 00;05;53;07 Stan Sollars But I can always try. 00;05;53;10 - 00;06;14;05 President Mearns Yes, but more seriously, you know, prior to the pandemic, you know, up until 6 or 7 years ago, before the advent of new technologies and new approaches to teaching and learning, it really we really had just a binary choice. If the snow and the cold were an ice were too great. When we closed the university, we also had to close all of our classes. 00;06;14;05 - 00;06;37;18 President Mearns Or the alternative was just to keep the university open. But now, you know, with that technology, because of our experience with that technology, we can be more flexible. And so that's what we did on Monday. We effectively closed the campus with some important exceptions, but we encourage faculty to continue holding classes. Most of those classes could be held online. 00;06;37;18 - 00;06;56;21 President Mearns So that was the approach that we've taken. And as I said, with the experience that we had with these new technologies and the extraordinary challenge of the pandemic, our faculty are even more flexible than they were 10 or 15 years ago, in turns up being able to promptly switch to some kind of flexible remote or online teaching. 00;06;56;28 - 00;07;04;12 Stan Sollars Well, I'll do my best to write 70s as high temperatures in the forecast, but I doubt that I have that kind of power. 00;07;04;14 - 00;07;07;08 President Mearns Hope springs. Hope springs. Eternal Stan. 00;07;07;09 - 00;07;13;04 Stan Sollars Yes it does. Well, President Geoff Mearns, thank you very much for being with us today. And stay warm. 00;07;13;07 - 00;07;17;05 President Mearns I will thank you, Stan, and you take care and everyone have a great warm weekend. 00;07;17;05 - 00;07;21;10 Stan Sollars Thank you. For IPR news. I'm Stan Sollars.