Due to enrollment leveling off, NIC has fallen just short of its projected budget this semester.
Spring tuition revenue fell short by $300,000 of projected estimates.
“We have a higher number of part-time students than full-time, and so that naturally changes the revenue picture for us, because we budget by headcount instead of FTE [full-time enrollment],” said Vice President for Resource Management Ron Dorn. “It was really just a switch from full-time to part-time, even though our numbers were up.”
Dorn also pointed to a decrease in out-of-state students as another contributing factor.
According to Dorn, the shortfall isn’t cause for worry, however, due to a small surplus of money projected to be unused in other areas of the budget.
“We have the opportunity to reduce some of our expenditures to cover that, so it’s really not an issue for us,” Dorn said. “Most people really won’t notice any changes, because it won’t really affect us.”
While tuition drops are not a major issue this semester, they do stand as a sign of what Dorn calls “a major change in revenue streams.”
Despite a major decline in state funding, North Idaho College has managed to maintain a steady income by the large growths in enrollment.
Dorn cautions that if this growth continues to level off, or begins to drop as the economy bounces back, and if there is no increase in state funding, the college may have to begin to look into raising tuition prices and property taxes.
However, Dorn said NIC would look to neither option as an immediate solution and would instead look to budget tightening and increased efficiency first in such events.
“One of our challenges is to try to read that crystal ball and try to determine when that drop [in enrollment] is going to happen, so that we don’t budget a higher tuition than we are going to get,” said Sarah Garcia, a controller at NIC who helps manage the business office and put the budget together.
Garcia pointed to past drops when NIC was needed to cut over $1 million from its budget. “You just kind of have to look at outside indicators and try to account for it appropriately.”
