Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a series of budget articles.

The state has paid an $8 million installment for Fiscal Year 11, which brings the total appropriations owed to Eastern from about $21 million to about $12 million.

Richard Wandling, a political science professor, served as interim chairman of the CUPB, and he said he thought the FY11 state payment is a complex situation.

“On one hand, it is certainly disturbing that we have not been fully reimbursed for FY11,” Wandling said. “On the other hand, given how bad the state’s budget is, the fact that we are receiving money for the previous fiscal year is a promising sign.”

William Weber, vice president for business affairs, said this is the first time Eastern has received payments from the state for FY11 in about four months.

“We continue to be promised the rest of that installment by the end of December,” said Weber during the Council on University Planning and Budget meeting Friday.

The state remains current on paying appropriations for FY12, and they have paid about $8 million so far, Weber said.

He said they have trimmed the budget by about $1.6 million because of the enrollment decrease of about 450 students.

“When we built the budget for this fiscal year, we built the budget assuming that our enrollment was going to drop by about 3 percent,” he said. “When the fall numbers came in, it turned out that it was a bit higher than that and so we have trimmed our budget to account for that decline in enrollment.”

Weber said because the budget situation is tighter than they expected, they are trying to balance the impact across the vice presidential areas.

“It has been a challenge for us, but we address those challenges and keep moving forward,” Weber said. “The situation is manageable short term, but it is not sustainable long term.”

Wandling said he thinks the state’s continuing payments provides a glimmer of optimism for Eastern and that, hopefully, the state will stay on track with paying the appropriations.

Right now, there is no real drive for the state to change its mind on either last fiscal year’s or this fiscal year’s funding, he said.

“It is always a fear, but there are no signs on the horizon that that is going to happen,” Weber said.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].