IU College of Arts and Sciences expects shortfall which could lead to cuts

The main reason for the shortfall is student credit hours, Singell said. IU uses something called the responsibility centered management model to determine the budgets for each of its schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. This model, often referred to as RCM by administrators and faculty, uses each school and the College’s market share of student credit hours to determine how much money each entity gets. Over the past decade, the College’s market share of the university’s credit hours has declined, Singell said.

The driving factor is students arriving on campus who don’t need to take as many general education classes, Singell said. That’s the result of a push both in Indiana and other states for high schools to offer more dual credit courses, or classes that count for both high school and college credit. Another reason is growth in the university’s professional schools, such as the Kelley School of Business, the School of Informatics and Computing and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

What this means is the College gets a smaller portion of the university’s budget pie. While the university’s budget isn’t expected to be constructed until June, Singell said if everything is done the way it was last year, the College will be short. Singell said the College’s reserves will cover the shortfall this year, but several changes are being considered.

“We’re not in a crisis yet,” he said.