'We are to the marrow'
Understanding CMU's budget and employees
CMU President MacKinnon works at his desk in Warriner Hall early in the morning on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025. (CM-Life | Trevor Sparks)
Central Michigan University President Neil MacKinnon announced in March that the university will be planning to reduce the budget next year due to low enrollment. MacKinnon said this is after a significant decline in international student enrollment and "rising operational costs" at the Academic Senate meeting on March 3.
“We held some hope that (international students) would receive their visas for January start, and as you know, only 40 did,” MacKinnon said at the meeting.
Though decisions on next year's budget will not be announced until April, MacKinnon said every department leader will be looking at ways to reduce their budget.
"Senior leaders across the university...they're working with their teams right now to review their strategic priorities, their pressing goals in the unit budgets in an effort to identify a potential cost saving measure," MacKinnon said at an Academic Senate meeting on March 24.
"I also will note that this also includes Paula (the provost) and I and our office."
President of the Faculty Association Amanda Garrison said after seven years of budget cuts, faculty do not have the resources to keep cutting programs, staff and resources.
“There have been cuts forever to the point where, in this college (School of Politics, Society, Justice and Public Services), we are to the marrow,” Garrison said. “We’ve lost a great deal of trust, and it feels that our goals have not been aligned.”
CMU employees and the budget
The main source of the university’s income is from students. Tuition, room and board made up 61% of all revenue within this year’s budget. The salaries of all faculty and staff within the university make up around 38%, or $1.79 million, of the total amount the university spends.
Cali Clark, director of employment and compensation, said enrollment affects the amount of money that’s available to pay employees, but each group of employees is affected in different ways.
“No matter how many students are here, we still have the same acreage to mow. We still have the different offices to support those kinds of things,” Clark said. “It’s more about how it impacts the staff to reduce the staffing to meet our budget.”
Each department has its own budget and decides the number of employees and what kinds of employees it wants, Clark said. If the department is interested in creating job positions or hiring new employees, the department will then work with Employment Services to approve salaries and classifications.
Clark said employment services determine salaries based on an individual's education and experience, current union contracts and how other universities pay those positions. The university compares the salaries to those of other universities, including CMU's peer universities, those within the Mid-American Conference, and those across the nation that have a similar budget range.
"When we make any decision, we look to CMU's guiding principles: our mission, our vision, and our values, as well as our strategic plan," MacKinnon wrote an an email to Central Michigan Life. "Making decisions about staffing is no different. When we make those choices, we look to our mission that calls on us to ensure the success of our students and our graduates, and the work we do in communities locally and around the state."
The average salary of all employees on campus is $77,800, according to the most recent salary list for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Among the close to 2,200 employees on campus shown on the list, the top ten highest-paid employees on campus include:
- Interim Dean for College of Medicine, $633,450
- Central Michigan University President, $500,000
- Head Football Coach, $427,450
- Senior Associate Dean of Research, $401,408
- Associate Dean of Clinical Education $367,586
- Provost and Executive Vice President, $360,500
- Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services and Chief Financial Officer, $328,846
- Head Coach for men's basketball, $319,300
- Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics, $318,130
- Dean for the College of Business Administration, $318,130
After George Kikano resigned as dean of the College of Medicine last year, Tina Thompson stepped in as interim dean until the college finds a replacement. Last year, CM Life reported that Kikano was the highest-paid employee on campus with a base salary of $750,000. Thompson is now the highest-paid employee with a base salary of $633,450.
Within the salary list, there are 12 different employee groups on campus. Here are the averages of the different employee groups on campus:
- Administrative office assistants, $39,094
- Dispatchers, $55,907
- Faculty, $93,522
- Maintenance and service, $44,260
- Medical faculty, $152,829
- Police, $73,613
- Police lieutenants and sergeants, $90,306
- Postdoctoral research fellows, $54,648
- Professional and administrative, $71,693
- Public broadcasting, $55,515
- Senior administrative, $244,060
- Supervisory and technical, $47,010
Faculty and the University
The salary list shows there are 762 faculty members on campus, including 32 medical faculty. Scott Hoffman, executive director of faculty and personnel service, said faculty do not tend to be affected by enrollment as much as other groups on campus.
"Our turnover numbers have ebbed and flowed for all our various employee groups, but faculty are not generally more beholden to enrollment impacts than our staff employees," Hoffman said.
Despite this, Hoffman said fixed-term faculty, or faculty hired on for a limited period of time, can experience more layoffs than tenure-track faculty, or faculty with more permanent positions.
"However, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to experience enrollment challenges, any more directly or severely than some other staff employees might," Hoffman said.
Garrison said in the past budget cuts, programs, classes and staff have been more affected than faculty.
"We have fewer custodians," Garrison said. "We are now being asked to do (custodians) jobs; ... we are not supposed to be doing other unions' work."
There are 68 custodians on campus, according to the salary list. In October, CM Life reported that there was a 25% decrease in the number of custodians on campus since 2017, with one of the factors being declining enrollment.
Resources, programs and classes have also been cut, Garrison said. If there are not enough students for certain classes, she said, departments will make a decision on whether to keep those classes.
Looking at the future
MacKinnon said in an emailed statement that university will be working with department and division leaders to discuss their budget. These decisions will not be known towards the end of April.
"We've made the decision as an institution not to address our budget through 'across the board cuts,' because we know those are rarely an effective strategy," MacKinnon wrote. "Instead we're engaging all department and division leaders, administrators, and others in this deliberative process. And that takes time, collaboration and a lot of difficult converstaions and decision-making."
Garrison said she believes MacKinnon's approach to budget reductions is positive.
"I'm hopeful that this is not gonna be something that is as painful as the past has been," she said. "The targeted cuts are intended to make it less painful, and to continue operations in a growing way. He's also continuing to invest."
