Mark Hudson, director of Housing and Dining, gave a rundown of the department’s financial situation to the Council on University Planning and Budgeting at its Friday meeting.

Because there are less residents this year, Housing and Dining is getting $3.5 million less than it did a year ago.

Hudson said it is not unusual for University Housing and Dining to start off the year with a budgetary deficit.

“It looks like we’re going to have deficit by the end of the year, but I know during the rest of the year things are going to happen to allow us to get that back,” he said. “Every year we’ve recovered from that.”

Right now, for Fiscal Year 2018, revenue is projected at $19.9 million with expenses at $23 million. However, Hudson said this does not mean Housing and Dining is in the red, as $10 million in assets are also projected.

“We’ve got the assets; the issue is they’re just in different places than the standard operating budget line,” he said. “In terms of our financial health, it is good.”

In FY11, Housing and Dining had $35 million in its budget. This past year, it had $22 million, making for a $13 million decrease.

While this is significant, Hudson said expenses have also dropped along with that. For instance, payroll expenses went down from $8.5 million to $7.5 million. In FY17, Housing and Dining finished the year with $1.7 million “in the good,” he said. There are still about $10 million of revenue bonds still outstanding on residence halls.

Eastern President David Glassman said as long as the university owes this money, it is not able to use any residence halls for anything except for housing purposes.

“Once that becomes arrested and we are no longer owing that, we have more flexibility as to how we can use residence halls,” he said.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or cjbuchman@eiu.edu.