St. Lawrence University faces $11.5M deficit

CANTON, New York (WWNY) - St. Lawrence University has a structural deficit of $11.5 million. It comes on the heels of SUNY Potsdam saying it’s trying to solve a $9 million shortfall.

SLU blames a decrease in student enrollment partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

University President Kathryn Morris learned of the deficit in February.

“So as a consequence of that, where students pay tuition to go to school, schools like St. Lawrence - many schools like St. Lawrence are seeing trends downward in terms of the size of their student body and the associated revenues that come in with that tuition that students pay,” said Morris.

According to university officials, the highest enrollment the campus has had was 2,400 students. U.S. News & World Report put enrollment for the fall of 2022 at 2,145 students.

As of this October, university officials say enrollment sits at 2,089.

“We currently have a financial challenge. Yes, it’s something that causes a little bit of pain on campus, but it should never overshadow the fact that we are doing amazing things here, that we have a strong community. Our students tell us that we have great and accessible professors, that we have staff members who care, and that they’re having a good experience here,” said Morris.

In all, there are 690 faculty and staff members. While officials say there won’t be cuts, current vacant jobs on campus will likely go unfilled.

“We made decisions about places where we just don’t need to replace those positions that we’ve been doing without somebody in those positions for a while, so we’re going to just continue to do without somebody in that,” said Morris.

The university is also reducing the amount given for retirement benefits to those 690 faculty and staff members.

“We have found that financially, that we are not able to afford that. That was a difficult decision that nobody is happy about, myself included. And right now we are in a position of making difficult decisions,” said Morris.

The board of trustees has given the administration a three-year window to solve these financial problems by fiscal year 2026.

Copyright 2023 WWNY. All rights reserved.