As enrollment goes up in colleges across the country, educators face the challenge of sustaining that growth with an uncertain financial future.

In Kentucky, demand for higher education has increased at all levels, said Sue Patrick, communications director for the Council on Postsecondary Education.

Enrollment increased about 6 percent from fall 2008 to fall 2009 across Kentucky’s public institutions, which includes community colleges, undergraduate and graduate schools, Patrick said.

When the number of students increases, the amount of state funds per student declines, Patrick said.

Nationwide, college enrollment increased by 3.4 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to an Inside Higher Ed article.

During that time, state money for higher education fell by $2.8 billion, although $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money has been used by many states to allow colleges to keep financial losses at bay, according to the article.

Kentucky is using $70 million in federal stimulus money for higher education, and Western’s share of that is $5.4 million.

That money will run out by June 30, 2011, and unless the General Assembly finds a way to replace it, Western will face a budget cut of $5.4 million.

Economic recessions often lead to more students attending college, said John Hayek, vice president for Finance, Planning and Performance for the CPE.

He said increased enrollment puts a greater financial pressure on schools to absorb more students, because more space and faculty are needed.

Colleges are having to find different ways to do business with this new fiscal reality, Hayek said. They must contain costs while maintaining quality education.

“Our institutions fight very hard to keep college affordable,” Hayek said.

He said financial pressures are also getting worse for students, many of whom now have greater debts and fewer resources.

Ann Mead, vice president for Finance and Administration, said in an e-mail that most times when colleges go through a budget reduction, they have been able to soften the impact on academic programs by raising tuition.

This year, Western had a 4 percent tuition increase, Mead said. In the two previous years, tuition increases have been about 8 percent, she said.

President Gary Ransdell said any insights into the effect of losing stimulus funds would be speculation since the General Assembly has yet to make a decision about the budget this year.

There hasn’t been any indication that the budget situation is dire enough to stop enrollment growth, Ransdell said.

However, if the budget situation becomes very serious, growth may begin to undermine academic quality, he said.

“We will only grow if we can sustain quality,” he said.

Western officials have plans for 83 facilities-related projects in the next six years, but it could be two years before officials can move forward on any of them.

On Oct. 30, the Board of Regents approved a six-year capital plan that lists plans for construction, renovation and other projects through 2016.

But last week, President Gary Ransdell said it’s unlikely that the state legislature will fund any of them in its session this spring because other colleges are competing for state money, and the state’s budget is already tight.

That means the earliest the projects could progress is the 2012 budget cycle, when Western will again submit a capital plan to legislators, Ransdell said.

Western’s top priority is renovating Thompson Complex Central Wing. Other projects include a new building for the Gordon Ford College of Business and improving the electrical infrastructure of campus.

Western submits a capital plan that lists Western’s priorities for future construction projects every two years, said Bryan Russell, director of Planning, Design and Construction.

“It’s a long-term plan of what we’d like to do for the university,” he said.

Planning, Design and Construction works with faculty and staff to see which projects they would like to have done, Russell said.

For example, there might be a program that has grown so much that it needs a new building, as is the case for the business college, he said.

Western’s list of construction priorities is submitted to the Council on Postsecondary Education first, which takes the project requests from all state colleges and ranks them, Ransdell said. CPE’s recommendation is taken to the state legislature for approval.

“The general assembly trusts the CPE to be objective,” Ransdell said. “It takes the institutional politics out of it more.”

There will never be a time when all of the projects Western submits will be funded, and usually a project must be submitted several times before it’s funded by the state, said Robbin Taylor, vice president for Public Affairs, in an e-mail.

But it’s important to present the projects to the state as early as possible, because all capital projects that cost more than $600,000 must be approved by state legislators, Taylor said.

Western ranks the capital construction projects by balancing the likelihood of getting the money with how much Western needs the projects, Ransdell said.

Officials rearrange priorities based on where projects are on CPE’s list, he said.

For example, the new business college construction ranked high on CPE’s list, so it was moved up on Western’s priority list.

CPE approved its recommendation on Friday, and the council’s list will be submitted to the legislature in January, Ransdell said.

CPE’s list of facilities projects for state colleges includes three projects from Western’s Six-Year Capital Plan, according to CPE’s budget reccomendation on capital investments. Number two on CPE’s list is the Owensboro Technology Center, which is a joint project between Western and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Thompson Complex’s renovation is ranked number five on CPE’s list, and the business college is number 13.

Western officials will know in April if any of the university’s projects will receive funding.