With the rough eco­nomic con­di­tions and the wors­en­ing finan­cial con­di­tions that Michigan cur­rently faces, the uni­ver­sity is fac­ing chal­leng­ing bud­get decisions.

Within the past month President David Eisler held three infor­ma­tional bud­get forums to address the state’s bud­get sit­u­a­tion and Ferris’ cur­rent fis­cal con­di­tion as well as to solicit input and con­cerns from mem­bers of the cam­pus community.

The state cur­rently is oper­at­ing on over a bil­lion dol­lars in eco­nomic stim­u­lus funds yet still faces a $1.6 bil­lion bud­get short­fall for next year. In the next three years rev­enues for the state gen­eral fund are expected to decrease by more than 40 percent.

During the forum, Eisler dis­cussed the state’s elim­i­na­tion of the entire Michigan Promise Scholarship and half of the Michigan Competitive Scholarships.

In addi­tion to pres­sure on Ferris from the state to con­strain the tuition, the state has also increased the cost bur­dens of many stu­dents by reduc­ing schol­ar­ships and finan­cial sup­port by roughly 54 percent.

For the 2009–2010 aca­d­e­mic year, the FSU bud­get was reduced by $2.5 mil­lion, $1.6 mil­lion com­ing from the 3.2 per­cent state reduc­tion and the remain­ing to cover tuition restraints. Over the past seven years, Ferris has trimmed its bud­get by over $11 million.

With the con­tin­ued decline in state sup­port, Eisler said that the uni­ver­sity it became more depen­dent upon tuition than any time since it’s become a state insti­tu­tion. Currently, tuition from 105 full-time stu­dents is equiv­a­lent to $1 mil­lion in revenue.

For the 2010 fis­cal year, roughly 70 per­cent of Ferris’ gen­eral fund rev­enue was brought in from tuition. That is a 40 per­cent increase since 1980. Over the past 30 years state fund­ing has decreased by the same amount.

This year the uni­ver­sity was forced to imple­ment a 5.3 per­cent tuition rate increase to adapt to the decreased pub­lic edu­ca­tion fund­ing from the state.

Adam Fulan, a sopho­more in the pre-pharmacy pro­gram, said, “Although I’m not happy with the tuition increases in gen­eral, I am pleased that [the uni­ver­sity] was able to min­i­mize the increase rel­a­tive to other universities.”

In a uni­ver­sity mem­o­ran­dum, Eisler said the career ori­en­ta­tion of Ferris’ pro­grams has helped main­tain and expand the university’s career-oriented edu­ca­tion, yet even the rel­e­vance of Ferris’ degree pro­grams can­not insu­late the uni­ver­sity from the state’s eco­nomic realities.

Over the past year the uni­ver­sity has begun look­ing at bud­get reduc­tion pri­or­i­ties. The Strategic Planning and Resource Council (SPARC) has begun look­ing at pos­si­ble bud­get reduc­tions based on fund­ing reduc­tion projects of $5 mil­lion, $7.5 mil­lion , and $10 mil­lion respectively.