The university’s 2025 budget was a main topic of discussion when the Oregon State University Board of Trustees Committees convened Thursday, before it heads to a Friday vote.
According to Associate Vice President for Budget and Resource Planning Brent Gustafson and Vice President for Finance and Administration, Chief Financial Officer Mike Green’s budget report to the Finance & Administration Committee on Thursday, the proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2025 is $1.84 billion in revenue and $1.87 billion in expenditures, net transfers and fund deductions.
Green and Gustafson broke down the budgeted revenue into three distinct parts: Education and General ($956.7 million), Restricted ($603 million) and Self-Supports ($285.3 million).
The total revenue for E&G funds, which includes Corvallis academic and support operations, OSU-Cascades academic and support operations, operations of the Statewide Public Services (SWPS), and the state’s Outdoor School program, is set to increase from FY23 third quarter revenue by 4.7%, or $43.1 million.
Net expenditures are projected to increase by a total of 7.1%.
“The budget does incorporate the financial impact of estimated growth in enrollment along with things like tuition and fee rate changes that the board addressed at its April meeting,” Gustafson said.
A breakdown of the $956.7 million budgeted revenue shows that the Corvallis campus will receive $796.3 million, the Cascades Campus $27.3 million, Agricultural Experiment Stations $57.7 million, Extension Services $56.9 million, Forest Research Lab $10.2 million and $8.2 million will go to the Outdoor School.
According to Gustafson, Self-Supports are activities that are largely expected to generate revenues to cover expected expenses.
“These are things like residence halls, parking,” Gustafson said. “(University Dining and Housing Services) and athletics are obviously the largest portions.”
According to the report, fee-based revenues are expected to increase 6% over FY24’s Q3, but sales and service income is expected to decrease 5.9% due to the reduction in conference revenues from the PAC-12.
Personnel Services are projected to grow 7% due to improved staffing levels while Supplies & Services costs are projected to decline.
Of the $285.3 million allocated to Self-Supports, UHDS will receive $90.5 million, Athletics $66.9 million, Student Centers $39.3 million, Service Centers $26.5 million, Designated Operations/Other $24.6 million, Student Health $20.6 million, Bend $8.3 million, Parking $4.9 million and $3.7 million is earmarked for Miscellaneous Auxiliaries.
Restricted Funds, as defined by the report, include grants and contracts for research awarded by the federal government, states and other agencies; federal financial aid dollars; gifts from the OSU Foundation (including scholarships); and support from other entities such as Oregon counties. Restricted funds are awarded for specific purposes and are spent directly for those purposes.
There is a projected growth of 10.2% in Restricted Fund revenues for FY25 while total expenditures are expected to increase 10.3%.
The $603.2 million for Restricted Funds is broken down to $427.5 million in federal funds, $63.2 million from the state and $112.5 million in Other funds.
Gustafson said that there are many uncertainties about the budget.
“We’ve talked in the past about the constraints around housing and what that means for on campus,” Gustafson said. “Residents and first-year class in particular. The steering committee and the university budgeting approach on those investments has been one that intends to scale and pace relative to revenue growth. So there’s a desire to move forward on those ambitious goals with an eye toward the potential risk of revenue and not overextending the university while we pursue those opportunities.”
Gustafson said that other uncertainties include the assumed growth of Ecampus as well as the future of University Athletics and the PAC-12.
