Trustees delegate FY26 budget to subcommittee

By Sophia Oppedisano Editorial Staff The Board of Trustees was not presented with a final FY26 budget proposal to review at its May 6 meeting.

The board then sent the budget draft to the Finance Committee (FinCom) to be reviewed later in the month.

Vice President of Administration, Finance, and Technology Robert Totino and Board of Trustees Chair Anthony Hubbard gave a report detailing the state of the FY26 budget. 

Hubbard said at the most recent FinCom meeting on April 22, “We were at a point in a cycle where we're a little bit early in terms of having some knowns about the budget projections,” and the budget was “still a work in progress” at the time of that meeting. 

At the April 22 FinCom meeting, Hubbard said the projected budget had over a $2 million deficit.

“What we've decided to do is to schedule another Finance Committee meeting so we could really flesh out and have a full sense of where the budget is,” he added.

According to Hubbard, the next FinCom meeting will be held sometime in May, and the full Board of Trustees will be invited to participate. 

At that meeting, the budget may be in a position to be fully approved, Hubbard added. 

Totino said the process of compiling the budget throughout February, March, and April led to an initial deficit of $5.6 million. 

In collaboration with the Business Office, the finance team, President Nancy Niemi, and vice presidents on the executive staff to “re-examine revenues,” Totino said they were able to decrease the deficit to $2.5 million.

“I'm happy to say, through some extra work that's been done in the last couple weeks … a second round of the reductions, which just came in as of last week, I’m pleased to say, as of right now, we're at a break-even budget for FY26, so we're going to start assembling that package,” Totino said. 

Hubbard said they were not presenting the budget at the May 6 Board of Trustees meeting because FinCom had not heard the details about the deficit reduction.

Since the FY26 budget could not be approved at the Board of Trustees meeting, Hubbard proposed a vote to delegate authority to approve the budget to FinCom. 

The vote passed unanimously. 

Totino added he believes the budget for FY25, which had a deficit of $400,000, will also reach a break-even standpoint by the end of the fiscal cycle in July.

Hubbard also spoke about the “presidential compensation from an equity perspective” issue and reported the Department of Higher Education approved a 9% increase to President Nancy Niemi’s salary. The increase will make her salary comparable to that of the other nine state university presidents, as Niemi previously ranked last in terms of compensation.

The Board voted unanimously to grant Niemi the 9% increase, which will go into effect in July.

Niemi said, “Thank you for that vote of confidence. … I appreciate that.”

Niemi reported she is one of over 600 university presidents who have signed the American Association of Colleges and Universities' public statement calling for constructive engagement in response to the Trump administration's recent actions against higher education.

“It's been remarkably effective, I think, in bringing solidarity and bringing attention to the importance of colleges and universities in the United States in support of democracy and citizenship,” Niemi said. 

According to Niemi, a Federal Actions informational portal has been added to the University’s SharePoint site to “keep our community updated with what is going on in Washington and how it impacts us, both locally and nationally.”

Vice President of Enrollment Management Iris Godes updated the Board on enrollment. She reported 617 commitments to the University at the time of the meeting, as well as 119 requests to extend the deadline for deposits. 

Godes compared this year's numbers to 2023’s enrollment data due to a 2024 issue with FAFSA that skewed enrollment numbers. She said there is a 2% increase so far from 2023, and she is positive the trend will continue to improve. 

Student Trustee Jeremy McDonald reported on the Student Government Association (SGA) election as well as a letter of support written by SGA to students detailing “our commitment to ensuring access to public education,” he said.

“In the letter, we enumerate promises to the student body that include that we will accept you, we will advocate for you, we will open doors for you, and we will defend your right to a public education,” McDonald added. 

McDonald also introduced incoming Student Trustee Luke Yubeta to the Board. 

Yubeta said, “I'm looking forward to taking this opportunity to serve my community the best that I can.”