Arizona State University doesn’t expect to furlough or cut pay for its faculty and staff, diverging from financial cutbacks implemented at the other two state universities.

ASU President Michael Crow told The Arizona Republic on Wednesday that the university had lost revenue due to fewer high-paying international students and increased costs for mitigating the spread of COVID-19, but that those losses would not result in cut pay or furloughs for employees.

“We believe that we can manage our financial situation, based on everything as it is at the moment, without any layoffs or furloughs or salary reductions,” Crow said.

The university also is not looking at eliminating any programs, he said.

He said the university is in a “challenged, but manageable financial situation.”

Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona have both implemented pay cuts and furlough programs to deal with financial losses they say are associated with the pandemic.

UA’s furloughs and pay cuts started in August and could last through the school year. 

At NAU, more than half of the employees received pay cuts, according to the Arizona Daily Sun.

ASU’s overall enrollment increased by 7.3% this fall, Crow said. Only international enrollment decreased, by between 12% and 15%, largely because of visa issues resulting from travel concerns during the pandemic.

The Arizona Board of Regents approved a request for a supplemental budget proposal to the Arizona Legislature in part to cover losses related to the pandemic.

But ASU is not looking for any funding from the state to cover these losses, Crow told The Republic. 

He said the university hopes to continue getting support for COVID-19-related expenses from federal resources and has made applications for those.

ASU received the largest sum of money among universities from the CARES Act, but did not quickly distribute these funds to students, unlike many other universities. 

Instead, the university distributed some of the money this summer and fall, and will use the money going forward to help students stay in college. Schools have up to one year to spend the funds. 

The university was allotted $63.5 million through the CARES Act, more than any other college in the country. Of that, $31.8 million was required to be spent on emergency financial aid grants to students.

Students criticized the slow rollout of the funds, saying they needed the money more urgently in the spring to manage the effects of the pandemic’s changes to their education and livelihoods.

Crow has defended the decision, saying ASU is using the money to encourage college completion.

Reach reporter Rachel Leingang by email at [email protected] or by phone at 602-444-8157, or find her on Twitter and Facebook.

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