On Sept, 12 the University senate announced that the budget deficit has dropped almost two million dollars from a projected $9.5 million in early August to $7.5 million.

The original projection was based on the estimated class size of the incoming freshmen class which actually turned out to be larger than previously expected.

In summer 2013, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., president of Loyola University, sent out a campus wide letter stating that Loyola was facing a $9.5 million deficit.

“I have reason to think we may be able to bring that deficit down a bit more,” Marc Manganaro, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said, after the Sept. University Senate meeting regarding the $7.5 million.

Manganaro said he was happy to report that Loyola may be only facing a $7.5 million deficit and that the number may still decrease.

As of Aug. 15, 647 students were committed to attending Loyola, but the number falls at 632, as of Sept. 12, Manganaro said.

He said the number is on the “high end of their expectations.”

“We did not get the summer melt we were expecting,” Manganaro said.

With a smaller freshman class, Manganaro and the University Senate are focusing on a concrete number of students for Loyola to recruit for the future, to increase revenue.

Regarding the reassessment of class size, Manganaro said, “who we are, and who we want to become,” is an important part of our identity that needs to be defined.

“If we want to get smaller, our revenue has to match,” Manganaro said.

To help answer these difficult questions, Loyola’s administration has turned to two enrollment management firms, Scannel& Kurz and The Lawlor Group.

These groups have had a history of working together in the past, Manganaro said.

The management firms will be visiting campus throughout the year and meeting with focus groups of both faculty and staff.

Early retirement plans are one of the options to help decrease the deficit.

The university will be taking steps to reduce the deficit no earlier than the Oct 17 Board of Trustees meeting.

“For better or worse, nothing will happen until the October board meeting,” Alice Clark, chair of University Senate, said.

Taylor Denson can be reached at [email protected]