The future of the university’s budget remains unclear with cuts not finalized and the economy continuing to struggle.

There is a lot of uncertainty with reporting and communicating the processes relating to the budget because it is the first time the university is using the new resource management model, said Ellen Rasmussen, associate vice president for budgeting and planning, during a Professional and Scientific Council open forum on Thursday.

Rasmussen presented the development of the fiscal year 2010 budget and the uncertainties associated with it.

She said the state will get some money for education from the recently passed economic stimulus plan, but the governor is not going to change the fiscal year 2010 budget target because the stimulus money may be needed in the future if there are further cuts.

“We have a possible 11 percent cut in state education, purely based on what we are trying to deduce from the appropriations target the education committee got,” Rasmussen said.

Another uncertain factor is enrollment in future semesters.

Fall 2008 enrollment looked good and the university met all the goals it set, Rasmussen said.

However, future enrollment depends on how well new students and their families will withstand the economic crisis.

When orientation comes, new students may find that they either don’t have enough money to attend Iowa State or that coming to Iowa State will be the safer option than choosing more expensive schools in the current situation, Rasmussen said.

Along with unclear enrollment numbers, the dependence of the budget on tuition has increased.

The budget also affects faculty, but it will not affect faculty salaries.

Last year, Iowa State faculty were offered the option of taking voluntary leave without pay and also giving voluntary donations to the ISU Foundation.

Regarding the budget cuts, Rasmussen said, “Things could get worse, it might not be quite that bad, we won’t know until the legislature is out of session.”

The issues in the budget will be presented to the Iowa General Assembly on April 29 and 30 and the final budget on June 10.