When the budget proposal was released on May 19, the issue of the university being placed on fiscal watch was discussed.
"Fiscal watch is when a university, two consecutive years in a row, computes a composite score of less than 1.75 in their Senate Bill 6 score. The Ohio Department of Higher Education calculates that, although we do that as well," Jeff Ulliman said, Chief Financial Officer.
Despite the changes made to the budget, it is still expected Wright State will be placed on fiscal watch.
"For fiscal year '17, unfortunately I do fully expect that we will be below 1.75. That would be year one. The fiscal '18 budget with the planned $6 million restoration of reserves will still keep us under 1.75 in 2018. If we wanted to avoid that in 2018, so that we wouldn't go on fiscal watch, in that year alone we probably have to add another $20 to $25 million to reserves. Once on fiscal watch, the state will get involved," Ulliman said.
According to Ulliman, state involvement means the state would look for Wright State's administration to develop a plan to raise the 1.75 score to a 2.4. The university would be given three years to accomplish this.
"So for us, that would be fiscal year '21. That doesn't mean we want or need to take three years, but that's the maximum amount of time we have. Depending upon where we actually end up in '18, but let's just say we end up right at our budget next year, we will probably over the subsequent three years still need to add another $45 million to get back that 2.4 score," Ulliman said.
Student enrollment and retention is the best way to move out of fiscal watch, according to Doug Fecher, Chair of the Finance Committee.
According to the Ohio Department of Higher Education website, Senate Bill 6 was enacted into law in 1997. "It is designed to increase financial accountability of state colleges and universities by using a standard set of measures with which to monitor the fiscal health of campuses," the website states.
SB 6 requires institutions to submit financial reports quarterly.
