Jackson State Faces 'Belt-Tightening' Year
Jackson State University's 11th president, Dr. William Bynum Jr., took the reins this month and told reporters this morning that the university is facing a few years of belt-tightening in its budget, but he maintained that the fourth-largest historically black college or university, or HBCU, in the nation will be just fine.
"Jackson State University is in good shape despite some of the financial issues that we dealt with. We're going to be just fine," Bynum said at the JSU Welcome Center this morning. . "We're going to have a tough year or two in terms of really tightening our belt. ... We're going to have to do some things, but at the end of the day, I'm confident that a year or two from now, we'll be just fine."
In June interim President Rod Paige announced a budget reduction plan that consolidated several academic departments, eliminated 42 non-faculty positions and froze several vacant positions on campus. The plan equates to about an 8-percent budget cut, as well as a plan to borrow $6 million, the Associated Press reported in June. The IHL Board approved a salary of $375,000 for Dr. Bynum in May, which is over $100,000 more than what Dr. Carolyn Meyers made in the same role, an AP report shows.
Bynum thanked Paige and his team for his work on the plan and said all the changes outlined in it went into affect as of July 1 after the IHL Board of Trustees approved the plan.
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2017/jul/14/jackson-state-faces-belt-tightening-year/