As Indiana University reels from cuts to state and federal government funding, it faces another budget challenge for the fiscal year that begins Tuesday — pressure from Gov. Mike Braun resulting in an in-state tuition freeze.
Tuition revenue is one of IU’s largest sources of income, making up about a third of its budget. For some schools, it’s more.
“Where is the money going to come from?” said Leah Shopkow, chair of IU’s Department of History.
Another question is where cuts will be made as campus awaits details of the full budget, which the university won’t release until August. IU will lose $60 million from the state and $40 million from the federal government.
At the Board of Trustees meeting earlier this month, IU Chief Financial Officer Jason Dudich discussed the cuts. The university will remove unfilled positions. Travel will be reduced, and retirement contributions will decrease by 1 percent.
IU said it’s making “deliberate and targeted reductions.” The university will release the full budget details in August.
“We do have a balanced budget, $4.5 billion coming in through revenue or utilization of cash, and $4.5 billion of expenses,” Dudich said.
The university is planning another phase of cuts, adding up to $200 million.
David Polly, chair of IU’s Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, said faculty didn’t expect cuts six months ago.
“It's serious in the sense that IU has always been, sort of, cutting it close to what we can afford,” Polly said.
Shopkow said potential losses will ripple throughout the university. She fears staff won’t be replaced if they leave. Plus, she said IU may not attract or keep young researchers because of changes coming from the state government and upper administrators.
“It cannot be business as usual,” Shopkow said. “When people ask me what I think is going to happen, my answer is nothing good.”
One thing made the cuts particularly hard for Shopkow.
After hearing the budget cuts on June 12, the Board of Trustees awarded Whitten with a $225,000 bonus – the maximum allowed by her salary bump to $900,000. One person, student trustee Kyle Seibert, voted against the bonus.
“The people who teach courses are producing revenue,” Shopkpow said. “The staff and the departments are supporting that revenue-producing operation, you know, and these are the people who are being asked to, you know, bite the bullet here.”
Legislators cut at least 5 percent of higher education funding in a tight budget year. Then, Braun and the Commission for Higher Education requested tuition freezes for undergraduate students to make college more affordable for Indiana families.
“A month ago, we challenged our state’s public higher education institutions to find efficiencies, eliminate redundancies and identify ways to streamline services without compromising quality,” Braun said in a statement. “The commitment made by all of Indiana’s public colleges and universities puts students and parents first and demonstrates to the rest of the country that Indiana is a leader in providing a high quality education at an affordable price.”
IU spokespeople referred to statements made at the board meeting and news releases.
“Even amid reduced appropriations, we remain steadfast in our mission to deliver affordable, high-quality education to students from Indiana,” IU President Pamela Whitten said at the meeting.
Shopkow said IU is supposed to serve Hoosiers. But now, out-of-state students could bring more money amid budget cuts.
“Setting us up in this particular way really forces us not to serve the state as well as we might,” Shopkow said.
Russell Scott Valentino, former chair of the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, said funding cuts by themselves aren’t necessarily concerning.
Valentino is more worried about another point slipped into the state budget: public colleges and universities must remove programs with low numbers of degrees awarded.
“They seem to be trying to micromanage not just the fact that we are cutting, but how we are cutting,” Valentino said. “By doing that, they're really overstepping their expertise, because they're reaching down into the mechanics of the way degrees are offered without really understanding the consequences of that.”
Cutting those degree programs — and potentially the staff and faculty that support them — could also jeopardize federal funding, Valentino said.
“Because we won't have the kind of expertise and the kind of programs that that funding requires in order to receive it,” Valentino said.
A lack of expertise isn’t the only problem with securing federal grants.
After President Donald Trump took office, his administration planned significant funding cuts for university research across the country. Arts and humanities programs also feel the reductions. Some grants have been outright cancelled.
Federal agencies have cited the ability to save billions of dollars and repurpose the funds for efficient research.
One major issue is a change in indirect funding. Federal grants directly fund research projects by paying for equipment or materials. The grants also cover a variety of indirect costs such as accounting, maintenance or just keeping the lights on. Now those indirect funds could be significantly reduced.
“That cut will have tremendous impact, because it basically means the university won't be able to afford to have the labs that are necessary to do that research,” Polly said.
Caps on indirect funds are being challenged in federal courts.
Other renowned federal programs are at risk, such as the Fulbright Program.
Fulbright, an international scholarship and cultural exchange program, has been sponsored by the U.S. government. The highly selective program was created by Congress in 1946 to promote partnerships and peace with 160 countries.
On June 11, the entire Fulbright board resigned after the Trump administration denied scholarships for a “substantial number of individuals” and forced others to undergo additional review. A spokesperson for the administration said it is “ridiculous to believe” that the Fulbright board should have the final say in its scholarship recipients, according to CBS.
“Fulbright is one of those prestige programs that's been around for a long time that people recognize, but to the Trump administration, that hasn't meant very much,” Valentino said.
Aubrey is our higher education reporter and a Report For America corps member. Contact her at aubmwrig@iu.edu or follow her on X @aubreymwright.
