Halfway through its fiscal year (actually, that occurred at the end of September), the college is now anticipating a year-end (March 31, 2019) budgetary surplus of $10.553 million.
The six-month financial update was presented to St. Clair’s Board of Governors (BofG) during its December 4th meeting.
The anticipated year-end “black ink” is considerably darker than what had been projected at the beginning of the fiscal year in the spring. When the 2018-19 budget was approved in March, the college’s administration had been forecasting a surplus of a quarter of that size ($2.674 million).
The report to the BofG by Vice-President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer Marc Jones said the surplus will be generated by a combination of higher-than-expected revenues ($182.8 million versus $177.4 million in the original budget), and lower-than-expected expenditures ($172.2 million versus the originally budgeted $174.7 million).
On the revenue side, the lion’s share of the newfound cash takes the form of tuition revenues from the college’s larger-than-anticipated – by far – international student enrolment. It is almost six percent higher than the March-budgeted estimate ($57.6 million instead of $53 million). [Domestic/Canadian tuition revenue came in almost exactly on target at $26.5 million.]
One interesting item in Jones’ report provided an example of how “real world” events can – and did – impact the college, in the form of a “Trump slump” …
… As of the end of September, project income from the college’s Skilled Trades Regional Training Centre on Windsor’s St. Etienne Boulevard has been $1.65 million lower that forecast by the budget. The financial operation of that campus, which trains students in a “real world” setting connected to local machining companies, has been negatively affected “due to manufacturing delays caused by the political climate with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the U.S.-imposed steel and aluminium tariffs”.
On the expenditure side, the chief “savings” have occurred in salaries-and-benefits. They’ll be almost $8 million less than originally budgeted: $93.7 million, instead of $101.8 million. Part of that scenario involved the hiring of more full-time faculty this year, reducing the expense associated with part-time teachers.
Meanwhile, in the same budget area, as of September 30: full-time administration salaries were $269,000 lower than budgeted, part-time faculty salaries were $5.879 million lower than budgeted, part-time support staff salaries were $1.424 million lower than budgeted, and fringe benefits were $1.303 million lower than budgeted.
See, also, the BofG story about newly approved programs: http://stclair-src.org/news/need-know-news/constructive-new-programs-approved-bofg
See, also, the BofG story about the continuation of private/public college partnerships – including St. Clair's with Toronto's Ace Acumen Academy: http://stclair-src.org/news/need-know-news/partnerships-are-out-mothballs
