Ivy Tech Community College Kokomo Region will be adapting to a budget that’s $712,792 less than last year’s after the board of trustees approved the 2014-15 budget proposal Thursday.
A 3 percent cut to the operating budget leaves Ivy Tech Kokomo with almost $21 million for the 2014-15 school year, $18.7 million of which can be allocated while the other $3 million is set aside to carry forward for the next academic year.
Chancellor Steve Daily said the region used to have more flexibility in spending its carry forward fund, but in recent years, Ivy Tech’s state office has said regions need to save the money.
“That really has had an impact on how we operated,” Daily said. “In the past, we might have a budget that is half a million dollars more than the state [office] allocated, and we would take that from our reserves to do what we wanted.”
Budget negotiations between Ivy Tech’s central office and the regional leadership have been ongoing since May, Daily added.
“This is the budget that’s been given to us by the central office, but it is not the budget we would like to have,” he said. “Based on our enrollment and a number of other factors, we will have to continue to trim our budget to get down to that $18 million figure.”
Preliminary enrollment numbers show Ivy Tech Kokomo has about 10 percent fewer students this fall compared to last fall, Daily said, which equates to a loss of roughly $300,000 in tuition revenue.
Trustee John Adler asked whether the Kokomo region’s consolidation with the Ivy Tech Lafayette region impacted their allocations this year, and Daily said it was not a factor. The merger should save the regions a total of about $800,000 by consolidating administrative positions, and each region will keep any additional money freed up in the merger.
The biggest reduction in spending from last academic year to this year came from salaries and wages, which makes up 63 percent of the 2014-15 budget compared to 66 percent of the 2013-14 budget.
“That’s basically positions we have not filled … and in many cases have taken off the books,” Daily said.
The board also approved writing off $392,275 in uncollectable funds from the bookstore, tuition, financial aid, corporate college and other third-party accounts. In 2013-14, the board wrote off $613,463 that could not be collected.
Trustees voiced their concerns about having to dismiss so much money owed to the college, but they felt they had no choice but to approve the write-offs and the budget as presented.
Also at the meeting, the trustees voted in favor of a resolution to offer human services degrees at the Logansport campus. Students currently can earn the degrees at the Kokomo campus, but Kim King, assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs, said there is demand for the degrees in Logansport too.
A significant number of students enrolled in the human services program live north of Howard County. There already is a full-time faculty member and space for the program at the Logansport campus, so there will be no additional cost to offer the degrees there.
“Looking at the workforce data, we predict there will be a 27.6 percent increase in human services jobs in Logansport in the next decade,” King added.
By this spring, Ivy Tech will offer an associate of science degree, associate of applied science degree, technical certificate and certificate in human services at that campus.
The board will meet again on Nov. 13.