The University of Colorado Colorado Springs will roll out a series of spending cuts in the coming years in an effort to balance its budget. In a message sent to the campus community on Thursday, UCCS leadership announced a five-year plan to close its current $27.7 million budget gap. The plan inc ludes $11.7 million in reduced spending over the coming year. “UCCS is at an important inflection point,” the letter read. “The financial landscape around higher education has shifted in lasting ways, and those changes are shaping how universities operate, invest, and grow. While our mission remains constant, the conditions supporting it do not.” The letter goes on to say that addressing the structural budget deficit and closing the gap will involve simultaneously raising revenue, reducing spending and reallocating resources. It also noted that the estimated budget deficit numbers may be adjusted in the coming years. In an emailed response, the leadership team told The Gazette that they will be running an engagement process across all its colleges and divisions, its graduate school and library, and that no reduction decisions have been made to date. They didn’t specify if any programs were growing or declining in interest. To make up recent budget deficits, efforts to reduce expenses have included eliminating vacant positions, restructuring and combining administrative divisions, reducing travel and operating expenses, consolidating software contracts and information technology, and deferring building maintenance and upgrades. Additionally, one-time funds from sources like the CU Foundation, along division, college and campus reserves, have been used as short-term solutions over this time. Leadership noted that they have not undergone layoffs across the board over this time. “When we must let go of a colleague, it is done only after careful consideration,” they said. They also indicated that, as of 2026, UCCS employs 1,268 full-time and 317 part-time employees, an increase of 61 full-time faculty and staff positions and a reduction of 38 part-time positions over the past five years. The university’s enrollment has declined over the past seven years, since reporting an all-time high of approximately 12,500 students. The CU System reported 10,607 students on campus at the 2025 fall headcount. This continues a steady decline dating to 2018. By comparison, the same report showed the CU Boulder campus increasing enrollment by over 4,000 students over this time, while CU Denver reported a net loss of more than 1,300, and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus a gain of over 300. A budget report for the 2025-26 fiscal year showed that about 55% of the university’s revenue was generated through student tuition and fees, followed by state funding at 26.8%. Recently, the university unveiled a strategic enrollment plan for 2025 through 2030 to increase and stabilize enrollment, along with a new Air Force ROTC detachment to serve local cadets instead of UC Boulder. UCCS also noted, like other businesses and institutions, that the school faces inflationary pressures, especially in rising health insurance and utility costs. Multiple UCCS professors declined to speak publicly on the announcement out of concern for their status at the university, but a campus-wide survey was conducted during the fall semester, where staff and faculty expressed a lack of trust toward UCCS leadership, with reasons ranging from “leadership opacity and strategic drift” to “declining morale.” “They are exhausted by recurring budget cuts without a clear long-term vision, deeply concerned about administrative growth amid academic austerity, and alarmed by inequities in compensation and workload,” the survey reported. “While trust is badly damaged, faculty express willingness to make hard, strategic decisions if leadership is honest, transparent, equitable, and genuinely collaborative.” Suggestions to rebuild this trust throughout the budgeting process included full and specific transparency, meaningful engagement with stakeholders before decisions are finalized and demonstrating care for the workforce. Since conducting the survey, UCCS has made it, along with additional feedback forms, budget resources and updates, available through an online portal referred to as the UCCS Healthy Campus Initiative. Each college at UCCS, along with its graduate school, library and divisions, will have forums and meetings next week to provide a space for faculty and staff to ask questions and discuss their plans.  “We are making these tough decisions so, in the coming years, we can stop what has become an annual budget cut process, stabilize our current situation and adjust policy and procedures around budgeting in the colleges and divisions to help ensure a financially healthy university going forward,” the letter stated. ...read more read less