Ensuring Affordability. Now.
At Ball State, we advance students further—with fewer resources.
Ball State administrators, parents, students, and state leaders have two things on their minds when it comes to a college education: taking an undeniably critical step toward both personal and civic prosperity, and ensuring that it is financially attainable.
Ball State has a demonstrated and validated commitment to fiscal stewardship and accessibility.
For example, the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) conducted a variety of productivity analyses for each of Indiana’s public higher education institutions. Its report (PDF) provides evidence that Ball State advances students further with fewer resources than any other school in the state when student preparation is taken into account.
Quality Up. Resources Down.
Ball State's fiscal stewardship and resource management run counter to conventional wisdom that university expenditures are escalating excessively and administrative costs are a significant contributor to the trend.
Our reduction in expenditures resulted in a $2,648 annual tuition savings for every full-time equivalent (FTE) student in 2011-2012.
Ball State expends less per FTE student today than it did a decade ago when adjusted for inflation. Over the same timeframe, Hoosier per capita income grew 31 percent more than Ball State expenditures. These savings have been made possible through increased external revenue plus more than 20 expense reduction measures including restructuring benefits, decreased maintenance costs, purchasing efficiencies, hardware and software efficiencies, and increased space utilization.
Three areas of efficiency represent some of Ball State's largest annual expenditures: administrative expenses, energy/utility expenses, and employee health care. Below are a few examples of our efforts to keep tuition affordable by controlling costs and being a responsible steward of our resources.
Administrative Staffing
Ball state has fewer administrative personnel per student than both instate peers and the national average. As the chart below indicates, we also spend more on instruction than our peers and spend much less on core expenses.
Sustainable Campus
Our geothermal system is one of our biggest achievements of our sustainability efforts to date. When completed, it will be the nation's largest ground source, closed-loop district geothermal energy system. It will save Ball State $2 million a year in operating costs and cut the university’s carbon footprint roughly in half.
Employee Health Care
Based on changes we started in 2010, our average employer contribution to health care benefits is notably lower than the State of Indiana.
Some of those changes include:
- eliminating the traditional underused and expensive preferred provider organization (PPO) plan
- negotiating new contracts with network providers that lower the cost of health care delivery
- implementing substantial wellness initiatives to encourage healthy behavior
- reducing employer contributions to inefficient and expensive health care plans.
Ball State Bold
Ball State relies on funding from generous donors to cover rising costs while keeping tuition affordable. Ball State Bold (2011) was our most ambitious capital campaign ever. The more than $210.8 million in private gifts from 65,000-plus contributors generated more than 200 new scholarship funds.
Ball State's Lean Budget is Harder to Cut
We've spent the last several years improving our high quality educational experience for students, advancing Indiana through our immersive learning and Building Better Communities initiatives, and becoming more efficient and effective with our resources.
Yet, even though our expenditures are well below Indiana peers in key areas, we are being challenged by further appropriation cuts.
Based on January 2013 governor's budget recommendation; cumulative loss includes loss of ARRA appropriated funds.
Ball State has the largest cut on a percentage and dollar basis.
Ball State is committed to a strategy that offers students a distinctive, affordable choice for a high-quality education that prepares them for a lifetime of employment.