Cheyney U. reports $2.1 million surplus

CHEYNEY >> To balance a budget, spend less than you bring in.

That’s what Cheyney University President Aaron A. Walton and his team did for the first time since the 20102011 Academic Year.

Cheyney has been fighting to preserve its accreditation. A balanced budget is one of the requirements for renewed accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. According to an unaudited financial report submitted to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education , Cheyney recorded a $2.1 million surplus on approximately $26 million in revenue, far outperforming the planned surplus of $261,000.

“Since 2017, we’ve been looking at what we could do to reduce expense levels to the point where revenue exceeds our expenses,” Walton said about the 275-acre campus straddling Delaware and Chester counties. The nation’s first historically black college cut about $9 million in expenses. Enrollment has significantly grown since less than 700 students were enrolled for the 2017-18 school year.

Fundraising played a big part in the recovery.

Balancing the budget is critically important for another reason, reads a Cheney release. For each year Cheyney balances its budget, one-third of the school’s debt owed to PASSHE will be forgiven, according to a loan-forgiveness plan approved by PASSHE’s Board of Governors in August 2017. This was the first of the required three years.

“Beginning two years ago under the leadership of Walton—a retired and highly experienced corporate executive—Cheyney University undertook a broad range of efforts to ensure the long-term financial stability of the university and to ensure the university’s resources were prioritized and sufficient to provide robust academic programs and student support,” said Cheyney University Council of Trustees Chairman, Robert Bogle. “We are well on our way to restoring Cheyney to its rightful position among elite Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).”

A significant contributor to the success of the administration’s balancing of the university’s budget was the development and implementation of an expenditure reduction plan. The administration curtailed expenses, reorganized the university structure, eliminated various positions and discontinued low-performing programs.

“We believe the changes implemented have en