Budget Breakdown
Georgia Tech currently has three contingency plans. Plan One outlines the procedure for in-person hybrid classes. Plan Two describes the plan for a semester that started completely online and remains in a completely online format until the end of the semester. Plan Three describes the plan if we started the semester in-person but switched to online learning at some point during the semester. A basic outline of the revenue numbers for each plan is given below. One important thing to note is that all three plans involve a significant loss of revenue due to decreased enrollment rates. Enrollment figures are very important because they pay for rooming, meal plans, and facility fees. In a memo about the financial impact of the pandemic, former Provost Rafael Bras noted that tuition is one of the main revenue streams for a public institution such as Georgia Tech.
PLAN ONE:
PLAN TWO:
PLAN THREE:
Although several students have adopted a completely online option, Plan One is the current plan we are following. That is because there are still students and faculty on campus. Additionally, it is very late in the semester and it is unlikely that plans will change, we chose to do most of our analysis on this plan. Plan Two provides a good look at all the cuts that Georgia Tech would have to make if it were completely online. The document outlining Plan Two produced by Georgia Tech offers some useful observations:
Tech's Observations of Plan 2:
• In Contingency Plan 2, overall tuition revenues decline by 10% in the high range. The low range demonstrates a 10% decline in all enrollment areas except for international students. In the low range, international students (graduate and undergraduate) are estimated to show a 50% decline.
• The 10% decline in all enrollment is shown to impact Institute Student fees as well in the high range. The low estimate shows the additional impact of a 50% decline to international students.
• Indirect Cost Recoveries assumes a 5% reduction in the high estimate and a 10% reduction in the low projection.
• In this scenario, Sponsored – RI Extramural assumes a 5% reduction. This is considered high.
• Housing and Other Auxiliary maintain only a minimal on-campus presence.
• Due to starting remotely and possibly migrating to on-campus, this scenario assumes Athletic and Student Activity fees are not charged, resulting in total revenue loss for fall semester. Spring and summer are not impacted in the analysis below.
This budget plan has the highest predicted loss in revenue out of the three plans, nearly an 18% loss. This is significant, and roughly double the loss in Plan Three and Plan One. These losses are mainly due to fees that could not be collected from remote students (like housing and meal plan fees) as well as a steep 10% decline in enrollment. This is a very significant change to the budget, and it has caused many budget cuts to be put into place at a rapid pace. Another reason why Georgia Tech needs to be conscious with its budget is because another one of its revenue streams is the state of Georgia. Per Georgia law, it is unable to exceed the budget that it has set for the year. For that reason, The University System of Georgia is planning to cut its budget by 14% in the upcoming year. This includes cuts from sections of Georgia Tech's budget that were were not deemed important enough. Drastic changes like this are common during a global crisis such as this one. After reviewing The University System of Florida Operating Budget, we were able to spot several similar proposed cuts in their budget as well. As former Provost Bras suggested in his memo, school systems need to prepare for situations like this and broaden their alternative revenue streams.
In the article “Georgia’s public universities propose cuts to meet state budget gap”, the 2021 budget projection can be found. Some major budget cuts from the document and our thoughts on them are listed below:
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Administration and Finance: A&F and Campus-Wide
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Move a majority of print advertisements to digital platforms
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Impact: Digital platforms allow a wider audience to be reached. There are more accessibility options available through digital platforms. Printing waste and cost is reduced. Overall, a good move if the cost of creating accessible documents is cheaper than printing them out.
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Administration and Finance: Office of Information Technology and Campus-wide
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Lengthen staff/faculty technology and computer replacement
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Impact: New devices are not being purchased as frequently for staff. This has a direct impact on digital accessibility since older devices do not have the same accessibility features as newer ones, or could be limited by software updates.
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Colleges, GT Professional Education, and Library
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Reduce the number of vacancies and non-mission critical programs and positions
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Reduction in Mission Critical Activity: Reduce instruction support including Part Time Instructors, overload, and instruction support allocations to the schools
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Impact: Unique or less used services might be removed completely, even if they are still crucial to a handful students. This category seems to be one of the largest potential savings categories, which is a red flag.
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Office of the President: Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
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Strategic Reorganization with Local Impacts: Reduce materials and supplies of Center for the Study of Women, Science and Technology
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Impact: This brings into question what other groups are losing support in the 2021 projected budget. Who gets to decide which groups receive budget cuts? Is it based on need or quantity?
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One very important part of the budget cuts above is that the Institute of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is getting cuts to the budget. This is direct evidence that accessibility is being neglected in this new temporary budget for Georgia Tech during the pandemic, hence our recommendations.
Glimmer of Hope​
As a part of the College of Design, the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation has been working hard to provide awareness about COVID19 around Georgia Tech's campus. They have also been working on research projects that aim to provide accessible education. On their website they also provide guides for accessible document design for various digital formats. The work they are doing is important to mention because they are eligible for sponsorships from entities outside of the University System of Georgia. For example, their COVD19 awareness project was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is important because if they can secure funding from a third-party, they are not limited by internal funding. That means they could continue to provide their valuable services even if there are some looming budget cuts.
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