In this year’s Campus Strategic Plan update which took place on Thursday, Oct. 10, KSC’s Vice President for Finance and Administration Nathalie Houder reported the budget deficit is the lowest it has been since fiscal year 2015 (FY15).
FY24’s final numbers show a current Operating Margin Deficit of $361,000, which stands in contrast to the year’s deficit of $2.7 million. Houder said the goal going forward is to have the budget deficit reach $324,000 by the end of FY25. KSC is committed to breaking even by FY26, according to previous reporting by The Equinox.
During the update presentation, Houder described two areas where the college was able to save; auxiliary revenue, such as housing and dining, exceeded projections, while utility costs stayed short of what was expected due to a warm winter.
Houder also identified an area where costs exceeded expectations: employee compensation. She said it was a balance because having a bigger staff had its advantages while greater costs posed their own challenges.
Vice President of Enrollment and Student Engagement MB Lufkin said one of the obstacles to enrollment was the difficulties with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form’s delayed rollout. She added that lost enrollments may still be recruited in time depending on whether they decided to enroll at other schools or hold off on enrolling at all because of the delayed form.
Lufkin pointed to KSC’s new athletic programs, namely esports and men’s and women’s ice hockey, as a driving factor in enrollment. She said this year saw the enrollment of 210 new athletes, up from 146 last year.
Retention rates from students’ first years to second years reached 78.7% this year, up from 78.5% last year. Lufkin said the eventual goal is to reach 80% retention rate.
Houder added the ideal number of students is around 3,000, not the 5,000 the college had during the time the deficit spiked.
“[The students that left] weren’t the right students, both academically and from a financial perspective,” Houder said.
Lufkin said the scholarship offered to students living on-campus, rolled out in 2021, has continued to boost enrollment and achieve the occupancy rate.
The overall goal Lufkin stated was to “avoid melt” and retain the student body through to the spring semester. She spoke about the new Fresh Start program as well as a tandem advising pilot rolled out to the math and nursing departments as new factors with the potential to continue to boost enrollment and retention rates.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
