Most universities, he says, build their budgets off last year’s budget and hope for the best.
“They don’t take into account revenue, and then at the end of the year, they’re like, ‘Oh, boy, how are we going to do this?’” Tate says. “That’s how you get two, three, $400 million in structural deficit, and you’re never really out of it.”
And waiting on the state to bail you out isn’t a plan.
“I don’t think the cavalry’s coming through the door,” he says.
So, Rutgers is going revenue-first. Tate’s finance team now forecasts revenue month by month. The University Senate is represented on the revenue forecasting committee, and the budget gets built off what’s actually coming in.
Tuition is one of the biggest levers. Tate says Rutgers is taking a more data-informed approach to enrollment management, emphasizing stronger student recruitment, retention, and long-term academic success.
“The most expensive education for both parties, the university and the students, is when they don’t finish,” Tate says. “Increasing the retention rate is actually a fiscally sound policy for the family and for the university.”
Schools that don’t figure that out, he says, won’t make it.
“Universities that don’t attend to that enrollment management strategy are going to go under,” he says. “It’s just bad business.”
