Central Washington University Board of Trustees October 29, 2020 Executive Summary – Budget Update
Fall-quarter enrollment is the official benchmark used by the state and the university for budgeting. As student enrollment is CWU’s main budgetary driver, fall-quarter data allows us to evaluate the assumptions made during the budget development process throughout the preceding months. Each year after the tenth day of classes, when students have added or dropped classes and enrollment has stabilized, staff create a fresh revenue forecast for the remainder of the year for all fund groups. Historically, this has provided a very accurate prediction of the full-year financial activities. We have taken the same care with this year’s forecast as in the past, but need to insert some cautionary notes; the change in instructional modality, on-campus residency, and potential COVID-19 activity presents a higher level of uncertainty in the ability to predict the balance of the year. Fall 2020 enrollment was projected to be down 500 total students from the prior fall, due mostly to circumstances created by the global pandemic. Actual enrollment in Fall 2020 was only 32 students short of that estimate. In addition, the mix of students was slightly more favorable than anticipated, with more non-resident undergraduate students and resident graduate students than expected. This mix should more than offset the shortfall in revenue associated with resident undergraduates. CWU appears to have waived less tuition than anticipated. We are cautiously optimistic that total net tuition revenue will be essentially on plan for the year with the budget assumption of $58.2M in revenue.
Submitted:
Approved for submittal to the Board:
Joel Klucking, Vice President Business and Financial Affairs
James. L. Gaudino
President
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