Campus Budget Update: Aug. 4

Dear Colleagues, 

President Randhawa’s message last week about the shift in fall operations referenced a distinction between our immediate budget planning for this fiscal year and our approach to more permanent and strategic budget planning in the next biennium. Today’s budget update includes more detail on that distinction and on the status of our FY21 budget planning. 

Earlier this year, we modeled two scenarios based on reductions in revenue. Those scenarios included several mitigation measures, as well as the possibility of budget cuts. Each division has been identifying strategies to meet potential budget reductions, as well as the impacts and consequences of those strategies, so that we are prepared to respond to losses in tuition and fee revenues and state funding. Vice Presidents and Deans will consider those strategies as part of building Western’s final FY21 budget recommendation this fall, weighing their impacts, alignment with our principles, and the most current information about our financial picture.  

The recommended budget will be shared with the University in September through the Budget Forum and University Planning and Resource Council, with links sent out for easy access. Following review and feedback, the final recommendation will go to the Board of Trustees for approval in October. Our planning approach for FY21 has been coordinated through the Budget Working Group and informed by the Budget Consultation Group. Sincere thanks go to all the members in these groups for their critical thinking and continued focus on how best to serve our values and mission during this challenging time. 

The emphasis this year is on bridging strategies, with a reliance on one-time measures such as stimulus funding, institutional reserves, and cost savings from holding vacant positions open and freezing non-essential spending. Although the divisions were asked to target the same 10% budget reduction in preparing strategies, the final budget recommendation will pull together a mix of those strategies to support our principles, our strategic plan, and our commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice. We based the 10% planning target on a “worse case” scenario of declines in tuition revenue and state support; the final approach will be based on updated projections of revenue impacts as we get more certainty towards the end of summer. As those projections firm up, we’ll provide another update to the University on our outlook for FY21. 

As we’ve moved through this process, there have been questions about when and how we might consider permanent strategies that cross divisions, are more vertical in nature (cutting or reorganizing an entire program or service, for instance) or require broad collaboration and deliberation. These kinds of strategies will be the focus of our planning for the FY21-23 biennium. The details of the FY21-23 process, including routes for raising ideas, engagement with governance and the University community, making space for key strategic investments and opportunities, and robust evaluation of strategies, are now in the works. Our normal biennial budget process will be expanded to reflect this biennium’s specific circumstances.  

As we have additional information to share, we'll do so through these emails and through conversations with stakeholders across the University. Please continue to share your thinking and questions through your representative on the Consultation Group, on the Budget Forum, or by emailing bfp@wwu.edu. 

Thank you, 

Faye Gallant

Executive Director | Budget and Financial Planning