EAST STROUDSBURG -- Kenneth Long is the vice president for administration and finance at East Stroudsburg University. He says the university is facing some issues when it comes to next year's budget.
"Our revenue increases somewhere around two to three percent a year. Our expenditures, for a variety of reasons, increases about five to six percent a year. When you're expenditures increase faster than your revenue, you have a structural deficit that you have to deal with," said Long.
That structural deficit is nearly $6 million for the next school year.
Long says flat enrollment and growing expenses on the campus are a big factor.
University officials are now looking at ways to fill the gap. Layoffs are a possibility, but the hope is to avoid it and work on reorganization.
"We need to realign our expenses to coincide with our revenue or projected revenue increases," said Long.
University officials say one way they are already responsibly managing money is by canceling a major project. The plan was to knock down the library and built a brand new one, but instead, they are going to use that money to do a number of different renovations.
Students on campus who have heard about the university's budget woes think it's smart that officials are putting money towards other areas on campus.
Sophomore Kenya Thompson says it's better than possibly losing faculty and staff.
"We deserve the proper amount of staff members. They are great. They empathize with us and it would be like losing a member of our family," said Thompson.
"The library is one of the newest buildings on campus, so the money can definitely go any other place, an older building or another facility on campus," said Devin Braig, ESU Freshman.
The only plan that will remain the same is replacing the current student union building that was built back in the '60s.
That project is still in the planning stages.
