Julianna Keiter
Staff Writer
The second Senate meeting of the academic year laid out the finances of the year so far, with more information coming soon along with a proactive measure to protect free speech here at ESU.
Donna Bulzoni, Chief Financial Officer for the President’s Cabinet, shared the high-level results of the financial stability of the university.
“The E&G (Educational and General Budget) closed with a $9.3 million deficit as compared to what was anticipated and planned use of reserves of $7.5 million,” said Bulzoni. “The increase in the deficit of $1.8 million and additional use of reserves was due to a number of factors, the larger being the debt expense, which is students not paying their bills, utilities, a health care settlement that was not anticipated as well as institutional aid that all came in higher than originally projected.”
The total cash balance was discussed in June of 2025 as the academic year closed with, “…$85.2 million, which is a decrease of $9.3 million from June 30, 2024, and a decrease of $18.1 million from June 30, 2023.”
These numbers were concluded to be stable, however, “… a review of the financial indicators annual results are showing an unfavorable trend,” Bulzoni inferred.
Bulzoni and Greg Bleakley, Director of Budget and Special Accounting, plan to present the budget at a campus wide meeting. A date, time, and location has yet to be determined, but everyone is encouraged to attend.
A more in-depth presentation will be presented at the next Senate meeting.
With recent developments in the state of the country, and the world, a proactive measure was discussed to protect free speech here in the ESU community.
Professor Christopher Brooks, who is currently researching free speech for a research project, according to the ESU website, spoke about his opinion on this action.
“There’s so much to say about this issue with a lot of things that are happening, not only in this country, but really the world. I just think that we need to take a serious look at the kind of environment that we’re committing to at East Stroudsburg University. I took a look at the rules and bylaws, and the process would be that the university Senate’s rules and bylaws Committee would be charged with creating an ad hoc committee, so temporary, to review perhaps what we do have online.”
President Kenneth Long displayed the current ESU website page about what the university can and cannot do as a public institution in terms of free speech. The link to that site is linked below.
Professor Bill Broun also spoke about creating this ad hoc committee.
“There are a lot of things to talk about with how things have changed in the last few years. We’re seeing really dramatic attacks on free speech in our country in a way that, frankly, you know, three years ago would have seemed unthinkable to me. But they’re happening all the time now, said Broun. “I think it’s worth revisiting where we stand with the committee and the language that we use to create a statement and also the quality of the statement overall.”
He continues with his admiration for the work that has been done before, such as the website, but the protection of the university’s free speech is something that needs to be continued.
The Senate voted in favor of creating the committee dedicated to protecting free speech by a 28-8 vote.
The next senate meeting will be November 3, 2025.