Mississippi State University is gearing up to take on a $47 million state funding budget cut over the next three years.
Vice president for finance and administration Mike McGrevey said the university has been preparing for budget cuts and is ready to rise to the challenge.
“We will deal with these cuts through a combination of efficiencies, work force management changes and revenue growth opportunities,” he said.
Before McGrevey was vice president of finance and administration at MSU, he was in the military, where his job was to translate war fighting capacity into dollar requirements to obtain needed systems.
Now, he works to translate the delivery of a quality education program into financial requirements.
“We price this out,” he said. “We figure out a plan to get the resources to enable the frontline professors to deliver a quality education to our students.”
McGrevey said the efficiencies and innovations committees have been meeting for months, and the input from those groups will be incorporated into major strategies.
“The president and I will be at an IHL meeting on Monday with other presidents and CFOs, and we will have a strong dialogue at how we’re considering approaching our budget issues, and we will all exchange ideas,” he said.
Since he stepped into office, MSU president Mark Keenum has been navigating the campus through budget cuts due to the poor economy. Last year the school was able to handle a 5 percent budget cut without increasing tuition. Keenum said due to the magnitude of the current cuts, tuition increases may soon be necessary.
“Anything we see here will be very modest because I’m sensitive to the impact [tuition increases] have on students and parents, but we have to maintain quality,” he said.
McGrevey said the university’s first priority will continue to provide a quality education, while insuring students have necessary class offerings so they can graduate on time.
“We never want to increase tuition; however, the economic challenges are so great that it has to be given strong consideration as part of the solution in part of our budget recovery plan,” he said.
Keenum said the university faced similar difficult budget cuts in the ’80s while he was on staff. He watched as programs shut down and staff and faculty were let go due to budget shortfalls.
“It had a big impact on me. I observed first hand the effect it had on this campus, programs and people,” he said.
Keenum said his philosophy is to be transparent and open to make sure information is accessible by staff, faculty and students. He said these budget cuts are nothing for students and faculty to worry about and the university is in very sound financial shape.
“We will be more efficient, more focused and stronger as a result of the exercise we are about to go through,” he said. “We are not going to let the quality deteriorate in our core mission of teaching, research and service.”
Keenum said he expects student body enrollment to continue to grow despite the economy and his goal is still to have 22,000 students by 2015.
“We’re going to continue to grow and be a strong, vibrant university that produces quality graduates and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in external research funds that are impacting our state and future,” he said. “We’re going to continue to be a leading flagship university for this state.”
McGrevey said the budget will be formed to improve the university.
“However we shape a budget, we use a budget to build competitive advantage for our university and for students,” McGrevey said. “A plan without resources is simply rhetoric.”
Senior communication major Hillary Cook said while she understands the necessity of a tuition increase, it will present a new challenge to many MSU students.
“I think a tuition hike would be hard on a lot of students with the economy the way it is,” she said. “More students will have to take out loans and grants to be able to afford a college education.”