CFO addresses Loyola’s 2% margin of operations in a finance town hall

Year-by-year, Loyola’s margins of operations, or the net balance between revenue and expenditures, are declining. In a series of town halls from Oct. 7-9, Loyola Chief Financial Officer Wayne Magdziarz explained how Loyola can adapt to the challenge.

Twice per year, the CFO holds town halls open to students and faculty to address the university’s financial successes and challenges.

“We had a good year. We had strong operating results of about $14.8 million, and only nine in the middle. But as you’ll see in a moment, the margins continue to shrink,” Magdziarz said.

Several years ago, Loyola had operating margins within 3-4%, but this fiscal year, the margin has decreased to 2%. In contrast to an academic year, which lasts from a Fall semester to the end of Spring, a fiscal year ends on June 30 of every year.

At the first event in Regents Hall, Magdziarz addressed a crowd of around 90 people by explaining the dynamics of Loyola’s margins of operation — the university’s expenses grew by about 2.8%, while revenue only grew about 1.5%.

Although revenue is increasing, undergraduate student populations aren’t a part of this increase. In fact, undergraduate enrollment slightly dipped due to a smaller population of prospective students resulting from the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, The Phoenix previously reported.

“We’re about 160 students light this year than we anticipated being for a couple of reasons,” Magziarz said.

Magdziarz pointed to the demographic dip and decrease of the fifth-year student population by about 100, saying this could mean more students are graduating within a four-year time frame.

While undergraduate numbers dip, Loyola’s nursing and graduate programs thrive, according to Magdziarz. Loyola consistently hits targets for their nursing programs while graduate programs amassed $4 million of favorable net income. Targeted enrollment for the nursing program is 176 students, while Loyola receives 10,000 applications for said seats.

A substantial part of Loyola’s increased expenses in the 2026 fiscal year is faculty healthcare, which totaled around $7.5 million. Expenditures rose due to high cost claims as well as increased pharmaceutical drug use. About 43 high claims took up approximately 67% of the healthcare budget.

Inherently, high cost claims are unpredictable due to the random nature of accidents that result in those claims, according to Magdziarz.

Loyola’s healthcare spending also had a 10% increase in pharmaceutical drug expenditures.

“The good news on that front is many of those or some of those prescription drugs are actually going to be dropping in prices significantly by 50% starting on January 1,” Magdziarz said.

Although Loyola’s revenue slightly exceeds its expenditures, Magdziarz said this increase is being used for expenditures and not earmarked for other projects.

“If we beat the revenue targets, then that just means that at this point, we have a little better chance of covering all of our expenditures,” he said.

As for faculty, Magdziarz explained Loyola’s predicted trajectory. He said the university is trying to avoid reducing staff.

“The enrollment numbers don’t suggest that there will be more faculty, but it will be less going into the future,” Magdziarz said.

Magdziarz said decisions to reduce staff is based on whether or not work can be redistributed.

As Magdziarz discussed in March’s town hall, there’s still uncertainty in terms of federal funding. He explained how federal funding cuts will apply.

“Effective this past July, there were some programs like the Grad PLUS program, the Grad PLUS loan program, that were eliminated, and there were other programs that were kept,” Magdziarz said.

Magdziarz said the effects of this won’t be felt immediately. Programs will carry over for students who used them in the past, and first-year students will have limited access to those funds.

“Since students that were already in some of those loan programs were, in effect, grandfathered in, the real impact on one of those programs, I would argue, are not going to be felt for another two to three years,” Magdziarz said.

Another strategy for Loyola to increase revenue is through philanthropy. Loyola is in the silent phase of philanthropy, according to Magdziarz. This phase involves less direct calls for donations being built up. Once the university gets closer to their fundraising goals, they will ramp up their efforts.

“We’ve had three, now consecutive, years of increases in fundraising, and that’s obviously a priority for us,” Magdziarz said.

In addition to discussion of budget margins, Magdziarz covered the university’s plans for a recent expenditure, building a new welcome center in place of Coffey Hall, The Phoenix previously reported.

Magdziarz said the new welcome center will offer a competitive and positive first impression for prospective students touring the campus.

As such, Magdziarz argued the Sullivan Welcome Center is no longer sufficient in recruiting students. 

“Universities are spending a lot of money in making sure that a prospective student’s first impression of their campus is just a whole lot of fun,” Magdziarz explained.

While Loyola’s margins of operation squeeze tighter, Loyola continues to employ a multitude of plans to keep our budget afloat between bolstering graduate programs, nursing programs and undergraduate recruitment.

For Magdziarz, Loyola’s changing financial climate requires innovation. 

“There’s stuff I think that we’re doing here for, you know, for the past 60 years that we just continue to do, because that’s the way we do it,” Magdziarz said. “We can’t press on those levers anymore. We have to make some choices on how we actually serve our students, both inside and outside the classroom.”