In an President Hank Bounds said Tuesday the university will manage a reduction in state aid next year without resorting to additional tuition increases.
A trio of budget adjustment bills signed by Gov. Pete Ricketts will force NU to absorb a 2 percent cut — or roughly $11 million — for the remainder of this fiscal year, followed by a 1 percent cut in 2018-19.
The 1 percent cut approved in the mid-year state budget adjustment translates to $6 million in appropriations, setting NU's taxpayer-assisted funding level at $574.7 million next year.
Bounds said NU will manage this year's $11 million cut by dipping into the university's "dwindling cash reserve," while also asking campus leaders to limit hiring, purchasing and other spending.
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Finding $6 million to cut next year will create additional problems, Bounds wrote in the email, because NU has already identified roughly $30 million in cuts to nonacademic areas of its operations.
The NU Board of Regents approved two years of tuition hikes — 5.4 percent this year, and 3.2 percent for 2018-19 — to generate additional revenue to close a $46 million budget gap created by rising costs and the cuts imposed by lawmakers last year.
Bounds said NU will continue examining ways to reduce expenditures, although he said it was too early to identify any potential cuts beyond those that have already been announced.
"With our budget cut known, we are in a better position to carefully consider what's been proposed, the feedback campuses are receiving, and what choices will allow us to meet fiscal realities while also serving the long-term interests of our students, our university and the state," he wrote.
On the heels of Ricketts signing the budget bills last week, Regents Rob Schafer of Beatrice and Tim Clare of Lincoln also signaled their intention to address the new loss of state aid through cuts and not tuition increases.
"The best news is that at this level of funding, we will not need to increase tuition across the board for 2018-19 beyond the 3.2 percent increase previously approved by the board," Bounds wrote. "We're pleased that we will remain a great value for our students and families."