Early Bird

Budget Recommendation Committee recap

The Friday meeting included an enrollment update and an overview of department goals and budget requests for fiscal 2021-22.

By Lindsey Coulter

March 3, 2021

Friday’s meeting of the Metropolitan State University of Denver Budget Recommendation Committee began with an overview of spring 2021 enrollment data. As outlined in the presentation, spring-semester enrollment has been in decline since 2017. That year, the University’s total spring student head count stood at 18,395, compared with 16,035 students for spring 2021. Other notable spring 2021 data points include:

• Total head count landed down 7.25% compared with spring 2020. It was:
• Down 7.20% in students registered within state-funded courses only.
• Down 11.39% in students registered within state-funded and cash-funded courses.
• Down 4.63% in students registered within cash-funded courses only.
• Total full-year FTE students landed down 9.89% compared with spring 2020. It was:
• Down 9.22% in state-funded courses.
• Down 27.21% in cash-funded courses.

To see more enrollment data broken down by students’ gender, residential status, classification, age, admission mode and ethnicity, please see the Enrollment Update PowerPoint presentation . The presentation also includes an overview of summer 2021 and fall 2021 applications, acceptance rates and more.

FY 2021-22 Phase I Budget

The meeting also established the foundation for future tuition-rate discussions by identifying what each University branch/area aims to accomplish for the coming year and how those goals relate to the 2030 Strategic Plan. Factors influencing MSU Denver’s tuition rate include adherence to the University’s mission and strategic plan, state funding and rate limitations, and the University’s commitment to affordability and access.

For FY 2021-22, the University’s estimated mandatory costs and requests from all branches and areas (including base requests, FTE and one-time requests) total $30,771,138. Please note that “mandatory costs” refer to those increased costs that are mandated by an outside entity, such as the federal or state government, a health care provider or campus agreements. The University has no authority in determining the increases but is required to implement them.

Please see the FY 2021-22 Phase I Budget Requests PowerPoint presentation for more details on each branch or area’s goal, requests for funding and how resources will be used to support the University’s mission and, ultimately, the 2030 Strategic Plan.

Click here to see important budget deadlines, dates for upcoming BRC meetings an.