Inter-Residence Hall Association members listened intently to what the director of the Department of Residence had to say Thursday about the department’s budget deficit this year.

Randy Alexander, director of the Department of Residence, said he wanted to bring the IRHA members up-to-date on the current budget deficit situation.

Alexander explained the Department of Residence receives no funding from the state. The department operates mainly by the revenues the students generate, Alexander said.

Each year the Department of Residence has a projected occupancy based on enrollment count of incoming freshmen, Alexander said. The projected occupancy count is accumulated by the Registrar’s Office.

“We didn’t hit projections this year,” Alexander said.

Early last semester it was estimated 4,200 freshmen would be living in the residence halls, he said. In February, the Department of Residence was notified Iowa State was not going to make the original projection, Alexander said.

The Department of Residence is down by more than 600 contracts, which creates a $3.4 million deficit. “That’s a lot of money,” Alexander said.

Unfortunately because the Department of Residence is not funded by the state, “there is no one to bail us out,” he said.

Ways to decrease the deficit include increasing revenues or cutting expenditures, Alexander said.

“We could go back to the Board of Regents to raise rates, but we aren’t going to do that,” he said.

The Department of Residence has decided to cut expenditures to help the more than $3 million deficit.

The closing of Knapp Hall a semester early will save $250,000, Alexander said.

Linden Dining Center may also be closing in order to save $395,000. Alexander said the Department of Residence could easily close Linden Dining Center and accommodate the students in Oak-Elm Dining Center or Maple-Willow-Larch Dining Center.

Students who work for Linden Dining Center now will not lose their jobs, Alexander said.

Alexander said the Department of Residence is making cuts in other areas as well. The majority of employees being cut are management. The Department of Residence wants to keep the people who interact directly with students on the front line, he said.

The Department of Residence is looking at even the smallest details to make up for the deficit, he said.

“In the UDCC we cut the fortune cookies and saved $4,000,” he said.

Enrollment being down is the biggest factor in the department’s deficit, Alexander said.

Alexander said reasons for the decrease in the number of students living in the residence halls this semester include a cut in the admissions office, higher tuition and the Fresh Start program.

Alexander said students did not interpret the Fresh Start program correctly. Students thought that the plan was to “force upperclassmen to Towers.

“That was never the plan, and never an option,” he said.

Alexander said he does not think low enrollment will be a recurring problem.

“I don’t know that we’ll be 100 percent back to normal next fall, but it will definitely be a heck of a lot better,” Alexander said.

Eric Peters, IRHA president, said he is working on setting up a meeting with Randy Alexander for IRHA members to go over the budget with him.