The University will be instituting a 7.5 percent budget reduction for fiscal year 2021 beginning Sept. 1 due to UH’s loss of revenue these past few months because of the coronavirus pandemic, President Renu Khator said in a statement on June 2.
The external factors which determine the University’s finances include enrollment, state funding, federal stimulus, Houston oil prices, international students and philanthropic support, Khator said.
“We know that our summer enrollment has turned out to be strong,” she said. “In fact, it has made up for the slight enrollment drop in fall and spring.”
How UH has managed loss thus far, Khator said, was reduction in expenses, hiring pauses and financial support from the federal CARES Act.
Khator also said the cut is fixed for vice presidents and they have the flexibility to distribute the reduction in their areas.
“While we continue to operate under a university-wide hiring pause, I am allowing vice presidents to approve critical hires in their areas after absorbing the 7.5 percent reduction,” Khator said in the emailed statement.
Khator said herself, athletic director Chris Pezman, basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson and football head coach Dana Holgorsen are taking a 10 percent salary cut for the next six months upon the advice of the Financial Task Force.
Any extra instructional revenue generated from the summer will be given to the provost to reward colleges based on performance, Khator said.
The central reserve fund is made up of 25 percent from academic units and 50 percent from administrative units, and will be used for academic and university-wide initiatives.
“I would like to thank the Financial Task Force for their incredible hard work in evaluating all the financial tools available to us,” Khator said. “Because of their keen attention to data and details, we have managed our crisis relatively well so far.”
