Friday, February 20, 2026

Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,

Yesterday, I shared an update about our budget projections with the UNT System Board of Regents, and I want to share an update with our university community following these discussions.

UNT is well positioned for growth and even greater impact as the largest university in the most dynamic regional economy in Texas. However, we are currently experiencing a revenue shortfall, primarily because of sharper than expected declines in international student enrollment. These enrollment declines have amplified fiscal challenges we were already facing because of $32 million in lost state formula funding for instruction and operations in the last legislative session. Now, we are projecting a structural budget deficit for the current year of $45 million.

The primary way we will eliminate this structural deficit will be growing student enrollment. Increasing enrollment aligns with our commitment to serve every qualified student who commits to learn with us, and our commitment to every UNT student’s success for the long term. We will continue to advance our work to bolster student success, while also expanding UNT’s reach through expanded online and professional programs aligned with high-demand workforce needs. We are also deepening our partnerships with community colleges across our region to improve student transfer.

Across our colleges, we will support our faculty innovators in transforming how we teach large enrollment courses. This initiative will expand work already underway to redesign courses using technology, personalize the learning experience to improve outcomes for students, and in turn, strengthen our financial position. This initiative will leverage and build upon models and technologies developed at leading colleges and universities across the nation.

While these strategies for increasing student enrollment hold great promise for UNT, they will take time to produce significant revenue. To stabilize our budget for the nearer term, we must also reallocate and reduce spending. The implications of these changes will be felt across the university, and we must make these decisions deliberately and with the aim of improving alignment across our values, priorities, and university budget.

Academic affairs accounts for about 80 percent of our available central funding, so reductions and reallocations of central funds will significantly impact academic affairs. These may entail, but are not limited to, consolidation or possible elimination of low-enrollment courses and programs, increased teaching loads, freezing certain vacant faculty and staff lines, and the strategic reorganization of administrative and academic units and departments. We will also launch a voluntary separation program for eligible faculty and will share more information about that program soon.

As we consider which measures to take to stabilize our budget, we must stay focused on what will strengthen UNT for the long term, support our mission as a public R1 university, and advance the bold vision we have articulated in Look North: UNT 2030. We will continue to make strategic investments for the health of the university. Most importantly, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the long-term success of our students. 

I encourage you to stay up to date with the latest information on our website, which we have launched to keep our community informed throughout this process. As we work together to navigate these budget challenges, I commit to lead this process with transparency and consideration for the implications of our decisions for the members of our UNT community. We will come through this better together and emerge as an even greater University of North Texas.

Respectfully,

Harrison Keller, Ph.D.
President