SU Abroad has recovered from past financial troubles under a new budget system, but the program is still struggling to increase enrollment numbers.

Due to the recession, decreased enrollment numbers and complications with Syracuse University’s budget system in 2006-2007, SU Abroad experienced financial woes in the last year resulting in a deficit of more than $1 million.

In July, the university reevaluated the abroad program’s budget system and decided that the program would no longer operate under the Responsibility Center Management system. It will now operate as a non-revenue program, similar to the SU Library or the Division of Student Affairs, said Donald Saleh, vice president of enrollment management.

SU Abroad was able to erase its deficit before the beginning of this fiscal year. It did this with reserve money saved from when it was a revenue center and with help from the university’s operating budget, Saleh said. Saleh and Jon Booth, executive director of SU Abroad, both said they expect SU Abroad to continue to operate with a balanced budget.

Under the new system, all enrollment money from students studying abroad through SU will be allocated to their home colleges instead of SU Abroad receiving the revenue. But enrollment money, from non-SU students studying through SU Abroad, will go toward the cost of educating students abroad through SU, as well as balancing the program’s budget.

Under the Responsibility Care Management system, SU Abroad was a revenue center. More successful programs would help support university-based programs that were less successful. With this system, however, SU Abroad only received 75 percent of its total revenue earned in 2008-2009.

Saleh and Booth said the program’s finances still heavily rely on students from SU Abroad’s partner schools like Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Virginia, among others. Students at these universities can apply to study abroad through SU’s international programs.

‘We are emphasizing working with our partners,’ Saleh said. ‘We want to make sure our programs still attract their students and to see the educational value that comes through studying with our program.’

Last year, SU Abroad saw a decrease in enrollment of 8.5 percent from the year before.

Enrollment for the spring 2010 study abroad semester is currently down 5 percent from last year. But Booth said, ‘it’s too early to tell’ what the program’s final numbers will be because the deadline to apply just passed Saturday.

Saleh said SU Abroad will accept lingering applications, especially for SU students who missed the Saturday deadline. But he expects the numbers to decrease, albeit slightly, from last year. The number of non-SU students studying through SU Abroad was down for the fall, but about even for the spring, Booth said.

SU exceeded national studying abroad enrollment trends this year. The Forum on Education Abroad conducted a survey after fall semester programs started and found that large, public universities saw a downturn in students studying abroad, but private universities either stayed about the same in enrollment numbers or saw slight increases.

Saleh said the increase of enrollment numbers in the fall semester and a decrease in the spring will even out to about the same numbers of total students enrolled in SU Abroad last year.

‘We were worried that enrollment numbers might be negatively impacted by the recession,’ Booth said. ‘Our experience has been we have not been seriously affected.’

Booth said he expects an increase of students studying abroad in the near future. On the application for incoming freshman to SU this year, 86 percent said they planned to study abroad during their four years at SU.

Booth said SU Abroad has hosted seminars about stretching students’ dollars while abroad. They have re-evaluated certain classes and field trips that now might be too expensive for students to attend in response to the recession.

Among the courses affected was a Christianity class where students traveled to Rome, and a political science class where students went to Turkey, Saleh said. SU Abroad either dropped courses, or eliminated field trips so students won’t have to pay additional costs.

SU students who receive financial assistant can take the aid with them while studying abroad, if they go through SU. Booth said a record number of students needing the Student Supportive Services program went abroad this fall, increasing from 19 to 25 students. The program run by the U.S. Department of Education allows students with conflicting financial aid, academic background or those that are first-generation college students to go to the university.

Booth said SU Abroad’s program is expensive compared to other schools because of things like the Signature Seminar, held prior to the start of some SU Abroad programs to give students a glimpse of their new environment.

Saleh said, in the short term, there can be small deficits at the end of this fiscal year, but SU Abroad’s operation budget will be completely balanced in the long run.

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on October 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm