Retirees Association

DDN: Wright State nearly doubles cash reserves in past two years

Trustee meeting

Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News

Wright State University trustees approved the school’s fiscal year 2020 budget Thursday after they told the administration to reconfigure it in a more conservative way.

Instead of planning for a 14 percent decline in enrollment, the administration has budgeted for a 16 percent decrease to leave wiggle room in the event that the drop is bigger than expected. The budgeted enrollment decrease amounts to around an $18.8 million drop in tuition and fee revenue since last year.

“Moving forward we will continue to work on our enrollment management strategy,” said WSU president Cheryl Schrader.

But, the university expects to add around $8.2 million to its reserve fund as it closes out its financial books for FY 2019. That’s about $5.2 million more than the $3 million the school’s FY 2019 budget required to be added to reserves.

The money increases the university’s cash reserves to more than $60 million after years of overspending drained it to $31 million in fiscal year 2017.