Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 13 - December 14, 2011

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Week of December 14,2011 | VOL37,IM6
THEUFMIRROR
fairfieldmirror.com
The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
The Reflection of Fairfield
Fairfield Deficit Up to $6.1 Million
BY MIRAKI.A TlERNEY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
While Fairfield students spent
the past month worrying about
the University's unexpected $4.3
million budget deficit, they had
no idea that administrators found
• additional problems that brought
Fairfield's deficit to a startling $6.1
million for the fiscal year ending in
June, 2012.
Some veteran faculty mem-bers
said this is the first time in 40
years that Fairfield has had such
a serious deficit in its operating
budget.
"Faculty - and probably most
of the University community - re-ally
have no good idea as to why
we are really in this budget crisis,"
said Irene Mulvey, a professor in
the mathematic department in her
ninth year as the Secretary of the
General Faculty. "We don't know
if it's a one-time thing, as we were
originally led to believe, or a long-term
problem that will get worse."
The Mirror asked Vice Presi-dent
for Finance Julie Dolan how
the additional $1.8 million deficit,
announced quietiy last Thursday,
was missed in original calculations
on the budget for the 2012 fiscal
year.
"The original calculations
were based on the revenue in-formation
available at the time,
which included the Fall enroll-ment
figures for undergraduates,
as well as the Summer and Fall
credit hours for graduate and part-time
programs," she said. This did
not include data from graduate
student enrollment, and it could
not account for Spring registration
numbers.
"Even the $6.1 million figure is
still an estimate," Dolan explained.
"We won't know for sure until
late January, after registration is
completed."
Dr. Mark Reed, vice president
for administration and chief of
staff, explained that as a Univer-sity,
"you develop plans to address
[budget challenges], but all plans
- good and bad - have underlying
assumptions, and if the assump-tions
prove incorrect, then you
have to deal with the results."
To better understand the bud-get
deficit, The Mirror conducted
extensive interviews with students,
faculty, and top administrators -
except for President Jeffrey von
Arx, S.J., who ignored repeated
requests for comment from The
Mirror.
Each area of the campus
community members sees the
budget situation differently. While
administrators are already look-ing
ahead to next year's budget
preparations, students and faculty
are still seriously concerned with
how the University will survive
the current academic year and are
suspicious of the lack of transpar-ency
from the administration in
budget proceedings thus far. Stu-dents
worry about how cutbacks
will affect their education and why
their $50,000+ a year for tuition
and University fees can't cover the
University's needs.
Administration Scrambles for
Solutions & Savings
Administrators now have to
balance the budget for the current
fiscal year, which will end on June
30, 2012, in addition to establish-ing
next year's budget.
"I think it is safe to say that the
University moving forward will be
revising its financial assumptions,
exploring all ways to operate as
efficiently and cost-effectively as
possible," Reed explained.
This includes "taking a
conservative approach in terms
of enrollment projections while
aggressively seeking to grow
enrollments particularly at the
graduate level, seeking any and all
additional revenue generating op-portunities,
and adjusting strategic
timelines and implementation
plans while maintaining positive
forward momentum," he said.
In an email sent out to the
campus community, Dolan noted
that "less than 25%" of the savings
found for the budget so far actu-ally
came from the staff cuts in
November. Administrators would
not directly address why the cuts of
nine staff members were neces-sary
when the impact each cut
had on the overall remediation of
the budget was so minimal. The
other 75% of savings in the budget
was found by eliminating empty
positions from new retirements
this year, according to the budget
communication.
The University hopes to pre-vent
the increase in the deficit in
the upcoming fiscal year, though
specific ideas for preventing such
a trend from repeating itself next
year were not yet available.
"Obviously, we will be taking
a closejook at all our assumptions
for [Fiscal Year] 2013, in light of
the reality we experienced this
year," Dolan said. Planning for next
year's budget will occur in early
January.
Student Confusion Growing
But despite the seemingly
calm mood of administrators,
students across campus said they
were growing more confused and
concerned about the changing
budget gap as word spread about
the increasing problem.
"I've gone to the past open
Students, Faculty Frustrated over
New Debt Numbers
I PAGE 3
Budget Breakdown
(accordingto the email sent
to campus community)
• Total savings iden
tified: $4,099,500
• Total to be identi-fied
(out of the original
$4.3 million deficit):
$200,500
• Total savings still
left to be identified (total
$6.1 million): $2,000,500
Primary Causes to the Ad-ditional
Budget Deficit:
• Softening in Study
Abroad/International
Programs: $200,000
• Changes in num-ber
of students living on
campus for Fall/Spring:
$750,000
• Revised estimates
from De.ans on gradu-ate/
part time program
enrollments for Spring:
$700,000
Mary Kafe McCormick/The Mirror
Beach Break-ins, Poor
Police Response
Concern Residents
OPINION I PAGE 4
FUSA President Steps Down
BY MARY KATE MCCORMICK
STAFF WRITER
Skip Monica. Forget Water-gate.
And bypass the controversy.
Although many presidential
changes are accompanied by cor-ruption,
the recent resignation of
Fairfield University Student Asso-ciation
President Charlie Knights
'12 is anything but scandalous.
In a Dec. 8 e-mail to the entire
student body, Knights announced
his formal resignation as FUSA
president, effective immediately
for personal and academic rea-sons.
By FUSA Constitution, the
title is passed to Vice President
RobVogel'13.
Although a presidential
switch midway through the school
year is nontraditional and poten-tially
risky, the transition from
Knights to Vogel is predicted to
be a smooth one because the two
have worked so closely together in
the past.
By taking a closer look at
Knight's reasons for departure and
examining the steps that Vogel
is taking to succeed in his new
position, the two hope to show the
Fairfield community that FUSA
is still properly equipped to serve
the student body.
Four Long Years
For Fairfield seniors, there has
never been student government
without Charlie Knights — a real-ization
that Knights was confronted
with this weekend as friends and
acquaintances alike expressed
gratitude for his time as class and
FUSA president.
Seemingly, it is odd Knights
would leave his post after being
elected into the highest student
Vice President Vogel to Step Up |
PAGE 2
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Former FUSA President Charlie Knights '12 and new FUSA President
Rob Vogel '13 have made history in an unprecedented passing of power
in Fairfield student government.