Northern Kentucky University has approved its fiscal year 2025 budget as it chips away at a deficit that hit $24 million in 2022.
NKU approved its fiscal year 2025 budget with revenue of $274,430,650 and expenses of $274,334,400. An additional $4,806,250 in expenses were authorized for non-recurring institutional scholarships and discounts for student cohorts before the fiscal year 2023. The reserve use of $4.8 million is non-recurring, and that reserve usage will be eliminated in two years.
“Thanks, everybody, for your work on the budget,” NKU Board of Regents Chair Rich Boehne said. “We’ve come a phenomenal distance in a very short time. I can tell you I’ve spent a lot of time recently with our reps in Frankfort, and they just weren’t sure we would pull this off. You all have done incredible work.”
As part of the 2024-25 budget, the Board approved the following:
- Tuition increase of 2%
- Full-time undergraduate Kentucky resident tuition will increase from $5,256 per semester to $5,352 per semester.
- This is an increase of $96 per semester.
- Housing rate increase of 5.9% to address inflation
- Dining plan increase of 5.9% to address inflation
“Compared to the same period in the prior year, we’re doing about $17 million better,” said Vice President for Administration and Finance/CFO Chris Calvert. “So that shows that these are very real, tangible impacts from the repositioning and from the two-year budget efforts that the university has undertaken.”
The adopted budget did not include salary and wage increases for employees.
NKU Board of Regent member Cori Henderson asked what the university is doing to help retain its staff.
NKU President Cady Short-Thompson said they are looking at incentives that are not raises or bonus-related.
“There are lots of ways that folks decide that this is a good place to be,” Short-Thompson said. “I think that professional development opportunities and climate and culture play a role. One of the opportunities in our financial health improves is to think about some of the other elements of benefits. So, for example, the rec center and access to it without fee is a possibility as we go forward.
“We’ve also talked about a few other benefits and whether that’s going be enriched as we pursue a new day financially. So, I do think that we want to be competitive, and we want to be a good place to work and there are a lot of factors that go into that. So, I think that we’re open as our financial health improves to really explore what would be the most meaningful.”
