Administrators Provide Update on Deficit Elimination Planning

By Dave Maley, February 14, 2025

Campus community encouraged to continue providing input.

President La Jerne Terry Cornish was joined by Provost Melanie Stein and CFO Tim Downs at the State of the College gathering.

All photos by Adam Baker.

At the spring State of the College gathering on Feb. 11, Ithaca College President La Jerne Terry Cornish and other administrators provided the campus community with an update on plans for eliminating the college’s annual budget deficit.

Before pivoting to that topic, however, Cornish took the opportunity to address recent developments at the federal level, particularly those aimed at grant funding and DEI initiatives. While noting that much is uncertain, she assured the campus community that the college’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging will not change.

“The work that we do is aimed at creating an environment where all students can succeed, and where everyone in this community can be their authentic selves,” she said. “Both New York State Law and Ithaca College policy prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected characteristics, including gender identity and expression. Our values remain unchanged. We remain committed to academic excellence, to respect and accountability, to innovation, to sustainability, and once again, to equity.”

Regarding the budget, Cornish said she had provided an update to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees at its meeting the previous week, in response to its charge to return the college to a balanced budget by fiscal year 2028.

We need to invest in faculty and staff salaries. We need to invest in the physical plant, and in technology. And we must align our expenses with our revenue, so we can continue our mission to educate, to engage, and to empower through theory, practice, and performance.

President La Jerne Terry Cornish

“The college has carried a budget deficit in each of the last three years. This is not sustainable,” said Cornish. “The next three years are going to require change. Much will be asked of the college community. But this also provides an opportunity, and it is one that we must take. We owe it to our community to use this opportunity to do more than just balance the budget. We can and must do the hard work necessary to realign our organization and our strategy to provide the best educational experience for our students.”

Cornish said that this work has started by focusing on the feasibility of certain revenue enhancements, and by beginning a review of the college’s organizational structure—from top to bottom—in comparison to comparable institutions.

“My message to you today is the same as it was to the trustees last week: We need to invest in faculty and staff salaries. We need to invest in the physical plant, and in technology. And we must align our expenses with our revenue, so we can continue our mission to educate, to engage, and to empower through theory, practice, and performance.”

Tim Downs, vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer, presented a series of slides reflecting the planning process to date. He said that while balancing the budget is an absolute imperative, this effort is about more than that.

“Our goal is to take this opportunity and this time to build a more resilient institution,” said Downs. “And that’s why really our objective here isn’t just about trying to get the expenses and revenues in alignment, but it’s how do we make this institution more efficient, how do we make decision-making more nimble, and how do we build it for the ever and quicker changing pace that’s in front of us.”

Since last fall the college has been working with Huron Consulting Group on the initiative. Downs said they gathered external and internal data, developing quantitative analyses to identify and test potential opportunities. The external metrics include peer benchmarking and industry trends while the internal metrics include functional and divisional key performance indicators. He noted that there wasn’t much surprising in the data itself, but it has helped provide a context and framework for moving forward on deficit reduction. This includes considerations ranging from the tuition discount rate to the college’s organizational structure.

“We are looking at everything,” he said. “There is nothing off the table that we are not considering and reviewing as we understand what are the changes that have to be made, because again we are not just trying to close a budget deficit. We are trying to build for a better, more efficient, and more resilient institution at the end.”

Learn More About Deficit Elimination Planning

Members of the Ithaca College community can provide input directly to Huron Consulting Group by emailing DeficitElimination@ithaca.edu. Video of the State of the College presentation and more information can be found at the Budget Resource Planning Initiative website.

Melanie Stein, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, continued the presentation by providing a high-level overview of the actions Huron identified that the college might consider taking. Those actions fall into the broad categories of Stabilize and Expand Enrollment, Augment and Diversify Revenue Streams, and Strategically Reorganize and Invest.

“No surprise to anybody, enrollment is our primary revenue driver,” said Stein. “So understandably that was a major area of focus for Huron’s work. And they have identified a host of opportunities at all stages, from growing our application volume, to retention, to our financial aid strategy as well as our overall enrollment strategy.”

Stein said that reducing expenses is just as critical as bolstering revenues.

“We have to ask ourselves how can we think differently about the way we operate? How do we best support our core mission while positioning ourselves to be nimble and resilient to face the challenges ahead? We have to ask about our policies and procedures. And as we all know, we must reckon with faculty and staff compensation. Of course, I’m acknowledging that’s not a cost-cutting measure. That’s going to move the expense line in the other direction. But it’s critically important because the faculty and staff are our best resource and it’s the faculty and staff that are going to help move this institution into the future, and we need to invest in them.”

Stein said that selected opportunities will be integrated into the comprehensive multi-year budget model, which will be presented to the board of trustees in April in preparation for the 2026 budget approval process.

President Cornish returned to the podium to note that every member of the IC community still has an opportunity to provide input.

“Let me be clear that we are approaching this work with passion, with compassion, and with commitment. And every decision we make will be based on what we believe is best for this institution,” said Cornish.