Winthrop University approves 2022-23 budget with an $8 million deficit
Winthrop University has set a new budget with a built-in deficit for the 2022-23 school year.
The university’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved President Edward Serna’s recommended $115 million budget at the end of September, Winthrop officials said in a news release on Friday. The budget’s expenses and net transfers total $123 million, equaling an $8 million deficit.
Serna’s recommendation considered fall 2022 enrollment expectations and underlying budget implications and needs, the release said.
“After years of enrollment declines and two particularly tough enrollment cycles, we must look to new strategies to address Winthrop’s loss of market share and the increased cost of doing business,” Serna said in a statement.
Between 2020 and 2021, Winthrop’s undergraduate enrollment dropped by more than 10%. The university had 4,406 undergraduate students in the fall of 2020 and 3,973 in the fall of 2021, according Winthrop data.
About $5 million of the $8 million deficit are planned investments in classrooms and technology, grounds, auxiliary projects and marketing funds that Winthrop has budgeted through savings in past years, Serna said.
The remaining $3 million deficit will come from the university’s reserves, the release said.
“I am grateful we have the ability to handle an $8 million deficit, thanks to financial management efforts over the last few years and an unrestricted net position balance of $43 million,” Serna said.
Winthrop’s 2021-22 budget totaled $118 million in annual revenues and $124 million in expenses, then-Interim President George Hynd said in an August 2021 note to faculty and staff. The difference was covered with one-time Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds, he said.
Then, Hynd said the university’s budget planning focused on starting on a two- to three‐year process to reduce expenses.
“This is vital for our future,” Hynd said. “Gone are the days when Winthrop looked to increasing enrollments to solve endemic budget problems.”
What else happened at the board meeting?
At the end of September, the university’s board also unanimously voted to proceed with capital projects supported by the state of South Carolina’s 2023 budget to improve campus buildings.
The projects include:
▪ $9 million for Sims/Dalton Hall renovations
▪ $5 million for Dacus/Dinkins improvements
▪ $9 million for general renewal and replacement
▪ $6 million for the demolition of Wofford and Richardson residence halls
