March 1, 2011

 

This is a very busy time for everyone at Meredith as we race toward Spring Break. I would like to update the community on a few issues.

 

The 2011-12 Budget
March is still very early in the budget process for us and we have many variables that the budget teams are examining, including:

• Enrollment  - We have a large graduating class and we are uncertain  about whether we will we be able to bring in sufficient new students to replace those numbers. Since we are trying to create a very conservative first draft budget, currently we are assuming that we will bring in a class roughly the same size as last year’s …and that we may have a smaller enrollment next fall. This variable is very dependent on item #2.
• Financial Aid – We are now trying to determine how needy our new  class will be (Danny Green’s first analysis of financial aid applications indicates that the entering class of 2011 will be slightly more affluent than last year’s class). The element that is still very much unknown is what the legislature will do with the Legislative Tuition Grant and the Supplemental grants. Significant cuts would create more demand on our institutional financial aid.
• Endowment revenue – The method we use to calculate the payout on our endowment funds is taking a 5% payout on a three-year average of the value of our endowment on December 31. Although the Meredith endowment went up significantly in 2010, we are still averaging two bad years with one good year. Last year we had two good years and one bad year, so the endowment payout will be slightly lower for 2011-12 than it was for 2010-11.

Our highest priority for new resources continues to be faculty and staff salaries.

 

Second Quarter Budget Update

Steve Walters and the teams he works with have completed our second quarter review. The 2010-11 budget looks quite good with an uptick in revenue. At the end of 2nd quarter Steve is projecting that we will be over $900,000 ahead in revenues over expenses. Some of this comes from almost $350,000 in onetime unrestricted gifts to the college – but even with that excluded, our revenues are almost $600,000 ahead of our expenses.

 

I thank budget managers for their hard work to date and encourage them to continue to carefully monitor expenses throughout the fiscal year.

 

The Strategic Plan
The Strategic Planning Committee continues to meet weekly. The past few weeks the committee has:

• Researched colleges and universities to identify innovations in programs and pedagogy
• Developed questions related to Meredith’s future to explore and answer through the strategic planning process
• Facilitated discussions with the New Academic Programs Committee, the Academic Vision Committee, the Faculty Council, the Student Government Association and class officers.

As the committee assimilates the results of these discussions, we will plan additional input sessions from the community.

 

I appreciate the work of so many Meredith faculty, staff and students on these efforts and I will continue to report back to the community on our progress.

 

In this Issue:

Hartford BCBS Lecture

Commencement Speaker Announced

Summer Reading Book Announced

Student Participates  from Scotland in Reach the World Program

Meredith Mayhem Competition Generates Meredith Fund Gifts
From the President’s Desk
Faculty/Staff Accomplishments
Upcoming Events
News Briefs

 

Have you presented research or attended a professional meeting recently? Has your department earned an award? Share news of these accomplishments and more with the Meredith community. Faculty and staff are invited to email items to Melyssa Allen, “Campus Connections” editor, at allenme@meredith.edu.