A 23 percent decline in prospective student deposits for the fall semester is the most important figure forcing a 5 percent budget cut to general fund spending at the University of Missouri, the campus� enrollment manager told the MU Faculty Council on Thursday.

Interim Vice Provost Barbara Rupp said 3,733 prospective freshmen had paid a $300 deposit for the fall as of Monday, down from 4,862 students at this time last year. It is usually possible, she said, to project fall enrollment based on the number of deposits received by this point.

�That kind of forecasting is impossible this year,� Rupp said. �It is just so completely different because our deposits have been down for so long.�

The cuts that include a hiring freeze, no pay raises for the fall and a 5 percent reduction in general fund spending were announced Monday by interim Chancellor Hank Foley. Those steps are expected to cover $20 million to $22 million of a $32 million shortfall in tuition revenue; the remainder will come from reserve funds.

The cuts do not include steps that might be taken if lawmakers also reduce state support. The budget approved Thursday in the Missouri House reduces funding for the Columbia campus by $1 million and support for the system administration by $7.6 million.

The university enrolled 6,191 freshmen in the fall, and the campus plans for at least 900 fewer first-time students for the fall. Total campus enrollment is expected to drop by as much as 1,500. There were 35,424 students enrolled at MU this past fall.

�The situation for next year is grim,� said council Chairman Ben Trachtenberg.

The council executive committee met with members of the provost�s staff Monday to discuss the upcoming fiscal year, Trachtenberg said. The depressing details were similar to those announced a few hours later in a campus email from Foley, he said.

�The budget is what it is,� he said. �If the money�s not there, it�s not there. We are all going to do our part to try to make it work.�

The enrollment drop and state budget cuts result from an almost unbroken stream of controversies on campus that have garnered national and international attention. The most visible were the campus demonstrations by Concerned Student 1950 and the boycott of athletic activities by the Missouri football team that led to UM System President Tim Wolfe�s resignation.

Other factors contributing to the decline, Rupp said, include shrinking high school graduating classes, more aggressive recruiting by states such as Alabama and more students being accepted at the University of Illinois, a major regional competitor.

The university will have a better idea of what to expect this fall by May 1, Rupp said. That�s the cutoff date for seeking deposit refunds. Deposits must be paid before incoming students can participate in the summer welcome programs or be assigned on-campus housing, she said.

�We are doing everything we can to increase the yield,� she said.

Many of the schools, colleges and departments at MU are helping by contacting prospective students to encourage enrollment, Rupp said.

While she called the efforts �nothing short of remarkable,� the overall effect is uncertain.

�We don�t know how much change we can effect,� she said.