Marshall’s student recruitment efforts are paying off. Through expanding its metro fee territory and other measures, it is succeeding in attracting people to campus as the pool of traditional college-age students is projected to shrink and as more young people question the return on investment of a college education.
That’s the good news. There’s also some not-so-good news. Smith and Matt Tidd, Marshall’s chief financial officer, talked about the school’s “structural” budget deficit, which won’t be solved this year or next. Online sources say a “structural deficit” results from an imbalance between revenue and expenses. It’s not the result of a one-time event that throws the budget out of balance for a short time. It’s a long-term problem that must be addressed through changes increasing income, reducing spending, or both.
