Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
Throughout DePaul’s budget planning process, we have continued to uphold our full commitment to transparency and our dedication to shared governance. As we mentioned in a message sent to the university community
earlier this week, we are pleased to report that the DePaul University Board of Trustees unanimously approved the university’s $597 million operating budget for fiscal year 2025. The new budget will take effect on July 1, 2024.
We are happy to share more details about our path to reach a balanced budget. Beginning in September 2023, the academic and administrative units engaged their faculty and staff to determine FY25 budget priorities. Due to the anticipated minimal growth in net tuition revenue, academic and administrative units were advised to plan for flat budgets where possible. Working within these guidelines, the units brought their priorities forward to the provost, executive vice president, and president, who reviewed and prioritized them from a university perspective before submitting the budget plans to the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee.
Following a thorough examination and consideration of the proposed budgets, which started in early February, SRAC endorsed the FY25 budget by a vote of eight to one and presented it to the Office of the President on April 11. The president’s office approved the recommendations from SRAC and submitted them to the Board of Trustees for their consideration. The Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees then reviewed and endorsed the budget on April 25. The proposed budget was presented to the full Board of Trustees on May 30.
We’re pleased to report the proposed budget was approved by the board at their meeting on May 30.
Key highlights of the fiscal year 2025 budget include:
- A continuing commitment to affordability by including $342.2 million in institutional financial aid, which is an 11.7% increase from the prior year.
- A 3.0% compensation increase pool for full and part-time faculty and staff, effective January 1, 2025.
- A spending distribution from the endowment of $41.2 million to support student scholarships, endowed faculty positions, academic programs, research, and operations.
- $25.2 million to maintain the university’s physical plant and technology infrastructure.
We would like to thank all our colleges, schools, and administrative units for their commitment to reaching a balanced budget for FY25. We are especially grateful to all the members of SRAC for the time and work they dedicated to DePaul’s budgetary process.
As a resource to help the university community understand the budget process, we encourage you to visit the
Budget Blueprint website. The website is dedicated to sharing budget information and features historical data about DePaul’s financial landscape, explores trends in higher education across the United States, and outlines the budget process the university follows.
As a reminder, we are also conducting virtual
Educational Sessions for the university community through the end of June. Registration for the remaining sessions is open to all faculty and staff.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Manuel
President
Salma Ghanem
Provost
Sherri Sidler
Executive Vice President & CFO