New details are shedding light on how St. Cloud State University (SCSU) will try to address a massive budget deficit, and the university’s acting president has started to lay out plans on how deep the cuts will go.

On Monday, Larry Lee – who was named acting president just days ago after Robbyn Wacker stepped down earlier than anticipated – sent a letter out addressing the budget challenge.

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He wrote that last year, SCSU had an $18 million operating loss, and is projected to lose another $5 million this year. Lee said higher education is facing unprecedented struggles with student enrollment declining and financial constraints.

He went on to say the university will be meeting with other bargaining units on campus to discuss the proposed reductions, which include 13% of administrators plus a 13% cut to faculty, resulting in a loss of 57 faculty positions.

“The number of students we have on campus do not align with the number regrettably with the number of the faculty we have,” Lee told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. “The changes we’re making is to ensure that all those that are remaining here and the students that we are going to serve today and tomorrow receive the same type of quality experiences that we have for the past 155 years.”

The letter didn’t explain when those meetings with other bargaining units will happen.

As reported last year in May, the university cut 36 staff members – both faculty and non-faculty – as part of its 2023-2024 budget. In addition, 70 programs stopped accepting new students, which brought the number of program areas down to 239. Admission was also suspended to the following four programs and center: Philosophy (BA, Minor), Religious Studies (Minor), Theatre and Social Change (BA, Minor), Marriage and Family Therapy (MS, GC) and the Academic Learning Center.

Text from the full letter sent on Monday can be found here or below.