Dear All,

Has it been only three and a half weeks since most of us left campus for remote learning and work? It seems far longer, a disorienting time warp caused perhaps by unrelenting draws on our energy and emotions.

Eager, then, for the discipline of a scheduled commitment and encouraged by your questions and support in recent weeks, I embark with this message on “corona-missives,” weekly Friday updates on TCNJ deliberations and administrative goings-on. Please send your questions, suggestions and input to me to ensure these corona-missives can be relevant and worthy conversations and sounding boards.

For this first message, I will provide an update on our current priorities and conclude with some thoughts on working together to address the challenges before us.

Starting about a week ago we began pivoting from emergency decisions to more strategic, proactive planning and decision-making. The two major priorities are FY20 finances and FY21 planning. Let me take them in turn.

Fiscal Year 20 Finances
The immediate issue on our plate is fiscal year 2020 finances. By state law, all colleges and universities must balance their budgets each fiscal year, the period now ending June 30, 2020. Before COVID-19 disrupted our operations three-quarters of the way through the current fiscal year, we were on track for an end-of-year surplus of several million dollars. By practice we would ordinarily transfer any surplus to reserves for future emergency needs.

COVID-19 altered our current year fortunes significantly. Although numbers are still fluid, as of today we have a net deficit of $5.4 million for FY20. This reflects a combination of $20 million in “losses” ($4.9 million reduction in state operating support, $13.4 million in room and board refunds, $1.3 million in lost revenue from canceled events and facility rentals, and $365,000 in emergency costs) offset by $14.6 million in “gains” ($7.8 million in unspent or deferred TCNJ expenses, $4.3 million in meal plan holdings, and $2.5 million in federal CARES aid).

I cannot emphasize enough how fortunate we are, all things considered. TCNJ is in a relatively strong financial position, thanks to steady enrollments, conservative budgeting, and healthy reserves set aside for emergency needs. Although our accounts are down with the stock market—calendar year investment losses are $3.5 million as of today—we still hold sufficient reserves and will draw upon them to offset any remaining deficit come fiscal year end.

Fiscal Year 2021 Planning
Ordinarily at this time of year we would be putting finishing touches on a budget for the fiscal year to come. These times are not ordinary, however. The profound uncertainties of state emergency orders, the timing and spread of the coronavirus, the economic and psychological impact of the pandemic on students and families, our employees, New Jersey and the nation, altered college-going behaviors, and understandable anxieties about when and how we will return to campus necessitate patience, caution and fresh thinking.

The work at hand is to build out alternative futures or “scenarios,” each built on a set of assumptions and possibilities. We start with factors out of our control (e.g., enrollments, housing occupancy, state and federal support), fold in a series of possibilities (e.g., nature and extent of a return to campus for summer, fall and spring), and finally manipulate levers in our control (e.g., tuition, fee, room and board rates, financial aid investment, expense management) to reveal alternative futures.

We are working now with every division to identify how we might defer expenses or change our ways of operating to achieve greater outcomes and efficiencies. If you have ideas about how to “do business better” at TCNJ, please contact me, members of cabinet, or your supervisor.

Working Together

The good news is that although our current planning will have no fewer decisions and actions than did crisis management, it allows for and demands broader consultation and deliberation.

In that light, and keeping nimbleness and flexibility as watchwords, we will take advantage of Zoom and other technologies to broaden cabinet deliberations with faculty and others who bring valuable insights and perspectives to scenario planning. The Council on Strategic Planning and Priorities (CSPP) will share in scenario planning and will likewise broaden its investigations and consultations to include trustees and others. The Board of Trustees, in its turn, will continue its commitment to open public meetings and redouble its encouragement to participate at the upcoming (rescheduled) Tuition Hearing on May 5, 2020. Our aim in these alterations is to ensure we jointly shape our shared future with as much wisdom and input as possible.

We have already done an incredible amount of work in a very short period of time. Every unit—and I mean every unit, academically and administratively—stepped up during this period to resolutely attend to safety and health concerns while safeguarding the semester’s completion. We will look back on these days and see TCNJ at its finest: focused, caring, forward-looking, practical, flexible, and creative. I could not be more grateful and inspired.

Thinking of you and yours, with anticipation for the days ahead,

Kathryn A. Foster

President