The President's Post
       How do you complete a successful capital campaign at the tremendous magnitude of our recent one, yet face budget difficulties? That is a fair question to ask, and it deserves a fair answer. How was the money spent? Another fair question.

The PRIDE & PROMISE Campaign was planned to address several strategic areas: improving the campus infrastructure; raising salaries and benefits; increasing the number of faculty and staff in key areas; enhancing student recruitment; and expanding campus life activities. We were successful in all areas, and you can look around campus and see how the funds were spent. Also, most of the campaign donations were endowed and designated for specific purposes. We are limited as to how we spend designated gifts and are legally bound to the donors' intent.

   Why the difficulty with next year’s budget? Private campuses like Ozarks have only three sources of revenue: (1) restricted funds from the endowment based upon a set annual drawdown percentage; (2) the generosity of donors; and (3) student tuition and related charges. The weak economy for the past two years has negatively affected our endowment and the financial ability of many of our donors.

   A smaller endowment means a smaller corpus to draw funds from and, therefore, causes us to have a reduced amount available for our annual budget. At the same time, a number of our donors have seen their portfolios shrink and, as a consequence, have significantly reduced their gifts to us. That directly affects the annual budget. Because we are capping enrollment, we will not have that additional revenue available to us. In past years those dollars have been significant due to our yearly enrollment increases.

   The economy seems to be turning around, and that is good news. The upswing will be positive for future budgets, but it does not help us for next year’s budget. What else are we doing to remedy the budget difficulty? I will highlight our plans in the next Communique. In the meantime, I know this is complicated stuff and not easy to explain or understand in a few paragraphs. Please see me or any President’s Staff members if you have questions.

Dr. Rick Niece
President

Public Relations Office,
Mabee Administration Building,
Unversity of the Ozarks, Clarksville, AR 72830.
Phone: (479)-979-1420