Linfield takes steps to balance budget
With fewer students on
campus, university drops contributions to retirement funds
By Starla Pointer, McMinnville
N-R/News-Register, 10/16/2020
With
fewer students on campus, university drops contributions to retirement funds
Linfield
University has ceased contributing to employee retirement funds as part of an
effort to balance its budget during the coronavirus pandemic.
The
school, which employs more than 500 people on its McMinnville and Portland
campuses, is midway through its fall semester of in-person learning. Some
students didn’t return this year because of the pandemic, and others chose not
to live in dorms, which helps fund the university’s operations, leaving
Linfield short financially.
A
committee of faculty, staff members and students examined several options for
balancing the budget, said Mary Ann Rodriguez, the university’s financial
director. Instead of reducing salaries or cutting jobs, the group recommended
eliminating retirement contributions for the 2020-21 school year as of Oct. 1.
Employees
can still contribute to their own retirement accounts, but the school will not
add the 12% for faculty members and 9% for staff it had been contributing.
The
change will help balance the budget without affecting regular salaries,
Rodriguez said. She said retirement contributions may be reinstated in the next
fiscal year.
President
Miles Davis said “no one is happy about this, including myself,” but added,
“we’re trying to preserve the institution and preserve jobs.”
Linfield
is in better shape than many colleges and universities, Davis said. Reed
College in Portland, for example, has a $10 million deficit. The University of
Portland recently laid off 230 people. And schools are affected across the
country, he said. Ohio Weslyan University announced Wednesday it is cutting 18
majors.
“We’re
not in that situation, fortunately,” he said.
After
years of declining enrollment, Linfield had a record incoming class of about
532 in fall 2019 as a result of school-wide efforts at recruitment.
This
year’s entering group of 400 freshmen and 75 transfers is slightly smaller, but
still bigger than the class that entered in the fall of 2016, Davis said.
In
addition, Linfield’s retention rate for upperclassmen was high this fall, he
said. And the incoming class includes about 37% first-generation college
students, double the percentage they represented five years ago, as a result of
recruiting efforts and additional mentoring and support.
All
those factors “show the hunger for students to be on Linfield’s campus,”
he said.
Many
other universities continued virtual learning this fall, as they had done in
spring after the pandemic closed schools at all levels. Linfield was in the
minority in reopening its campus.
“Some
criticized the fact we’re trying to stay open,” Davis said.
“It
wasn’t driven by finances,” he said, “but out of a desire to serve our students
and create an environment for everyone to succeed.”
College
is about more than classroom education, he said. It’s about campus experiences,
interaction between students and between students and professors, and more.
For
some students, it’s also a place where they can be assured of health care,
three meals a day, a room, and reliable computers and internet connections,
Davis said.
He
and his colleagues heard from many students and parents wanting to return to
in-person classes. “They wanted to be back. That helped bolster what we’re
doing,” the president said.
Fall
classes are smaller than usual, and some are offered online or are hybrids of online
and in-person. Large tents have been erected to provide additional classroom
space. Students have pledged to wear masks and maintain social distancing.
They
were tested for the virus as they arrived on campus and are being retested
periodically.
The
university, which has nearly 2,000 students, had reported seven cases among
students, faculty and staff on the McMinnville campus, as of Oct. 14. Fewer
than five were reported on the Portland nursing campus.
Both
students and employees have been willing to adapt, the president said. They
have embraced opportunities to think creatively, he said.
“I
don’t want to paint too rosy a picture; it’s challenging,” Davis said. “But
we’re doing well.”
The
costs to erect tents and otherwise accommodate social distancing, as well as to
offer so many COVID tests, have added up, Rodriguez said. Combined with the
loss of revenue from dorms and on-campus meal service, that led to the steps to
balance the budget.
