Today’s Town Hall: Our Progress and the Work Ahead

Dear faculty and staff,

Thank you to everyone who joined today's fiscal town hall. I appreciate the opportunity to share our financial progress, the challenges ahead and our plan for moving forward.

During FY2026, we reduced our multi-year cumulative unrestricted deficit by $17.8 million and ended the year with $10.1 million in cash on hand, substantially exceeding our earlier projection of $3.4 million. We also began FY2027 with a balanced operating budget for the first time in approximately a decade. These accomplishments reflect the hard work and financial discipline of people across our University. Thank you.

Our financial plan
We still have a $19.9 million cumulative unrestricted deficit to address. Eliminating it in a single year would require measures that could seriously disrupt academics, research and student success. Instead, we have established a two-year plan to reduce the deficit by $9 million in FY2027 and eliminate the remaining $10.9 million in FY2028.

Our strategy combines spending discipline and operational improvements with revenue growth, stronger student recruitment and retention, philanthropy and more effective use of University resources.

We will continue reviewing and restricting travel, LaCarte purchases and special meals funded through University operating budgets. These restrictions do not apply to eligible grant funding, Foundation funding, endowed funds or e-Learning support funds. These resources remain available to support your work, and we are working to make them accessible more quickly. Dr. Dianne Olivier will work with the deans to establish guidelines for Distance Learning Funds.

We have also made substantial progress in Athletics, reducing its annual deficit reported to the NCAA from approximately $13.3 million in FY2025 to $5.4 million in FY2026.

Investing in our people
Even as we address our financial challenges, we must invest in our people. Our FY2027 budget includes an initial $500,000 to begin addressing the findings of our faculty salary study, including market competitiveness, salary compression and inversion.
As promised, these adjustments will be reflected in the October paychecks of approximately 100 faculty members. Your deans, Academic Affairs and Faculty Senate can provide additional details.

We will also conduct a staff salary study and have provided funding to honor previously committed research faculty startup packages.

Administrative reorganization
We are reorganizing the Administration & Finance portfolio to clarify responsibilities, strengthen accountability and improve coordination across the University.

The chief financial officer will report directly to the president, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the provost to help align financial decisions with academic priorities. Other responsibilities are being realigned to provide more focused leadership across University operations.

I also welcome Tommy Smith, our interim chief financial officer, who brings more than 30 years of higher education budgeting and finance leadership experience at an R1 university.

Payroll schedules
We will not transition faculty, graduate assistants or fellows to biweekly payroll. They will continue to be paid monthly.

Staff currently receiving biweekly pay will remain on that schedule for now. We will soon distribute a survey to gather staff feedback. If the results indicate that staff favor returning to the previous schedule, I am prepared to reverse course.

I encourage all staff to participate and thank Staff Council for its advocacy and leadership throughout this process.

Let’s keep the energy going!
As a thank-you for all you do for our University, we're offering each faculty and staff member two free tickets to tomorrow's Ragin' Cajuns football game against Troy at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. Kickoff is 4 p.m.

Claim your two free tickets here. 

I hope you’ll join us to cheer on our Ragin’ Cajuns. Geaux Cajuns!

Moving forward
Today's presentation is available here. A recording of the town hall will also be shared when available.

We have made significant progress, but our work is not finished. We will continue to communicate openly about our finances, explain our decisions and listen to your concerns.

Thank you for your continued dedication to our students and our University.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ramesh Kolluru
President