UNH President Dean: In-state tuition to increase; all departments hit by personnel cuts

DURHAM —  University of New Hampshire President James Dean indicated Wednesday in-state undergraduate tuition — frozen for the last six years at $15,520, not including room and board — may increase in 2025-26.

UNH leaders held an employee town hall via video conference Wednesday as the school works to regain its financial footing. Dean recently announced $14 million in operating cost cuts, which resulted in more than 60 workers being terminated last week. Affected employees were given 45 days notice, and the university has assured they will receive severance pay, health insurance continuation and access to job placement services.

More: Here are jobs and programs UNH is eliminating in $14M cuts: 'The mood is very somber'

Dean is not anticipating any additional significant personnel cuts in the near future, though he acknowledged an uncertain future in higher education as enrollment decreases are being reported nationally.

The school president and other UNH administrators took pre-submitted questions from university employees on Wednesday, one of whom asked whether the school will consider “thawing” the in-state tuition. In the fall, the University System of New Hampshire announced it was keeping in-state student tuition rates at the same level for the sixth year in a row at UNH, as well as at Plymouth State University and Keene State College.

NH legislature has been told tuition must rise, Dean says

“We have now signaled to our board of trustees and to the legislature in New Hampshire that we’re not going to be able to hold resident tuition flat any longer … We’ve reached the same conclusion that was probably reached by the person who asked the question that we can’t keep this up any longer with everything that we have facing us,” Dean said.

Seventy-two employees, largely non-unionized staffers, were affected last week by cuts, Dean reported in Wednesday’s town hall. Sixty-three employees had their positions eliminated, while others had their hours reduced, Dean said.

The school president said 35% of layoffs were paid hourly employees, while the remainder were salaried.

“The cuts were reflected in every area of the university and included managers and up, exempt and non-exempt staff. Rumors that some areas were not touched are not true,” Dean said Wednesday. “Cuts to academic areas were somewhat less than cuts to non-academic areas, recognizing that, of course, academics is at the heart of our mission.”

The Museum of Arts has been closed, while the College of Liberal Arts, Health and Wellness and Enterprise Technology & Services were hit with cuts. The athletics department also received a budget reduction, Dean said.

Programs affected include those in student affairs, academic affairs, campus recreation, Health and Wellness and within the Aulbani J. Beauregard Center for Equity, Justice and Freedom, among others.

The university’s “budget reset” was first introduced by Dean in October, when he called on the school’s unit leaders to adjust their current fiscal year budgets so the university could reduce anticipated expenses by 4%.

Since the fall 2018 semester, undergraduate enrollment between the university's Durham and Manchester campuses has declined by more than 1,600 students, equaling more than 10% of the undergraduate population.

Approximately 200 fewer incoming students are slated to attend the university next fall in a year-over-year comparison, according to Dean. As enrollment has dipped in recent years, expenses have increased, as has the number of employees.

In fiscal year 2023, according to the school, the university’s recurring non-grant expenses totaled $539.9 million, exceeding its $536.7 million in reported revenue.

Expenses jumped after more staff positions were added in the recent past following a period of employee departures associated with the COVID Retirement Program, as well as due to faculty and staff raises and inflation on university purchases.

“We believe … that these actions will put us on the road to financial sustainability,” Dean said of the budget cuts. “The university is not in any danger of closing, it’s not in any danger of shuttering academic departments, or any other such cataclysmic changes, and we're not expecting any more cuts of this magnitude anytime soon. It's really impossible to say what will happen in the more distant future, and much of this will be determined by the number of students who attend the university, both graduate and undergraduate, (in) the future. In the immediate term, we're going to budget very conservatively for fiscal year 2025, which as many of you know, starts in July. We want to make sure that we have the revenue we need to support our current activities.”

According to Dean, no decision has been made on whether salaried employees will receive raises this year, though it’s been determined that university executive committee members won’t receive bonuses.

UNH president expresses empathy for those who lost jobs

The recent budget cuts were focused on the school’s current operating budget of roughly $500 million, a total that doesn’t include an additional $200 million in government- or business-funded grants and contracts at UNH.

“I can’t emphasize enough how painful this is for everybody, in particular for the individuals and their families who are impacted by this, but then for all of us who are (left) behind. I never want to be in any way less than respectful and somber about the difficulty of the changes that we had to make,” Dean added. “One of the most painful things about any kind of leadership job is when you have to do really hard things in order to ensure the safety and sustainability of the university, and that’s really what this was about.”

The need for trimming the school budget was realized as early as last summer, though they came into focus in the fall as university leaders examined enrollment.

Undergraduate and graduate student tuition-related shortfalls exceeded $13 million last fall, Dean shared.

Dean, who is set to retire at the conclusion of the fiscal year, made the decision to implement cuts now rather than save them for the yet-to-be-named new UNH president, he said.

“One thing that’s crucial that everyone understands is that UNH is far from alone in making these kinds of difficult and painful changes. This has unfortunately become the norm in higher education,” Dean said.

Across America, there are fewer young people attending college than there were 10 years ago. A December report from the Pew Research Center found that in 2022, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in American colleges was about 1.2 million less than in 2011.

Concerned attendees packed the Zoom call, with Dean and his team receiving about 125 questions before the meeting kicked off.

“UNH will continue for many years into the future to educate the people of New Hampshire, New England and beyond, and to conduct important research on important problems,” he assured.

The spring semester at UNH began Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: UNH president explains budget cuts; in-state tuition to increase