Cleveland State University is preparing to offer faculty and staff voluntary buyout packages to help close a projected $40 million budget gap. At a faculty senate meeting Wednesday, President Laura Bloomberg repeated that the university must “manage to our reality” – one that now, according to new projections, could see the university enrolling about 13,000 students by 2029. That’s a far cry from the total enrollment of 20,000 former President Harlan Sands pledged to hit by 2025 as part of the ambitious “CSU 2.0” plan. Last fall, the university enrolled about 14,175 total students, down about 13% from the nearly 16,330 students who took classes there in 2018. Fewer students, of course, mean fewer dollars coming in.
