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FREE | Take one 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 B ^H ^^T ■ ^r ^^B WJt/mf} l I ™ r * l » ' I t - * - 1 I • ■ ' 'jjjjflBB Contributed Photo 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.
Object Description
Title | Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 13 - December 14, 2011 |
Date | December 14 2011 |
Description | [PLEASE NOTE: This issue was misprinted as issue number 05. It has been corrected to issue number 13 for indexing purposes.]The Mirror (sometimes called the Fairfield Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, and is published weekly during the academic year (September - May). It runs from 1977 - the present; current issues are available online. |
Notes | A timeline for Fairfield University student newspapers is as follows: The Tentative, Nov. 7, 1947 - Dec. 19, 1947; The Fulcrum, Jan. 9, 1948 - May 20, 1949; The Stag, Sept. 23, 1949 - May 6, 1970; The University Voice, Oct. 1, 1970 - May 11, 1977; The Fairfield Free Press & Review, Sept. 10, 1970 - Apr. 24, 1975; The Fairfield Mirror, Sept. 22, 1977 - present. |
Type of Document | Newspaper |
Original Format | Newsprint; color; ill.; 11.5 x 17 in. |
Digital Specifications | These images exist as archived TIFFs, JPEGs and one or more PDF versions for general use. Digitized by Creekside Digital through the LYRASIS group. |
Publisher | Fairfield University |
Place of Publication | Fairfield, Conn. |
Source | Fairfield University Archives and Special Collections |
Copyright Information | Fairfield University reserves all rights to this resource which is provided here for educational and/or non-commercial purposes only. |
Identifier | MIR20111214 |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
SearchData | FREE | Take one 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 B ^H ^^T ■ ^r ^^B WJt/mf} l I ™ r * l » ' I t - * - 1 I • ■ ' 'jjjjflBB Contributed Photo 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. |