Budget Meeting

This morning I was sitting with our PIU leadership team (Celia, Nino and Bill pictured) as we hammered out a budget for the 2010-11 school year. Normally this budget is done and approved before the fiscal year starts in July and we just make some minor adjustments when we see at the end of August how many students have enrolled. But this year has not been a normal summer. Besides the personal tragedies we have been through, we have gone through a financial shortage that caused us to furlough some of our people and we even had to lay off some of our co-workers. We had hoped that God would supply through grants or that “big donation” that would take care of our budget shortfall. So far that has not happened.

So today we sat and tried to finalize a budget based on the minimum in donations and student tuition and fees. Of course we are hoping for higher income, but as our librarian Lisa Collins said, “better to be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed.” We will still be able to provide the quality classroom education and student mentoring we have provided in the past, but everyone will also be pitching in to help cover the needs in the office, maintenance and other necessary tasks. I have been very encouraged by the positive spirit exhibited by our faculty and staff as we move forward. We came out of the meeting with enough cut out of the budget to get it close to being balanced, but we are praying for more students and/or an increase in donations and grants so we can hire the people and provide all the services and training we believe God wants us to provide. As we begin the school year I am excited about what God is about to do at PIU. We remain committed to providing affordable Christian higher education to the people of the Pacific, who otherwise could not access it. I know God does not “take us through the desert” unless he has something good planned on the other side. We appreciate your prayers for us as we head into another semester.