Western Michigan University faces a large budget gap next year because of the Covid-19 shutdown, but it will not raise tuition or room and board rates this fall, Trustees decided at a virtual meeting today. Vice President for Business and Finance Jan Van Der Kley told the Board the university wants to ease the financial burden on students as they return to school.
Western’s next budget is expected to fall $45 to $85 million short, President Edward Montgomery said. Van Der Kley told Trustees about some of the ways the university plans to cut costs.
“We put hiring freezes in immediately. We’ve reviewed contracts with outside vendors and providers to renegotiate pricing,” she said.
“We have looked at any type of renovation or capital project that might have been planning or authorized but not initiated. We are not moving forward with that.
“We believe we’ve saved about $32 million on holding off on capital projects alone,” she added.
Montgomery said that Western will cut executives’ pay by 10 percent and administrators’ pay by five percent in the next fiscal year.