Kennesaw State recently took measures to recover millions of dollars lost in revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic by tightening rules on spending among college deans and department chairs.
” … the full financial impact on the university from the Coronavirus is still unknown,” KSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Dr. Shawn Long said. “However, it is important for us to be good financial stewards, which means that each dean is now responsible for approving all college-wide expenditures.”
KSU department chairs across the university will be limited to spending money only on items that are needed immediately, as opposed to stockpiling technology and supplies.
Furthermore, department chairs’ expenditure requests must go through college deans and the dean will have to present the request to the Division of Student Affairs with “strong justification,” Long said.
While some KSU faculty members are concerned for the potential of the university furloughing employees and cutting professors’ pay, KSU Assistant Vice President of Strategic Communication Tammy Demel said that there is no talk of furloughs at KSU in the current moment among KSU administration.
“KSU continues to assess the impact that the pandemic has had on the finances of the institution, but the projections for spring and summer are in the tens of millions of dollars,” Demel said. ” … the state budget is still to be completed for the next fiscal year so it will take some additional time to determine the full impact. At this time, there have been no discussions related to furloughs.”
University System of Georgia Vice Chancellor of Communications Aaron Diamant confirmed that the USG will not know actions needed until the budget is completed.
The University of Arizona is an example of a university beginning to furlough and cut pay for employees due to budget issues because of the impact of COVID-19 closures, according to AZ Central.
KSU could lose between $25 and $50 million dollars due to the COVID-19 closure. according to the Sentinel. This is, in part, because the university gave partial refunds to current students for campus services fees no longer being used.
In a statement released Tuesday, April 21, KSU President Dr. Pamela Whitten said that she created a Presidential Task Force “who will be working hard in the coming weeks and months to identify and plan for the wide range of critical issues.”
