Sept. 18, Austin Peay State University president, Mike Licari and APSU’s Senior Leadership team hosted a virtual town hall to share their upcoming goals for the 2025 fiscal year with the campus community.

The virtual townhall was decided to become an annual occurrence after positive feedback received on the one hosted last year.

In the meeting, President Licari addressed his four priorities for the upcoming fiscal year: campus vitality, enrollment, student success and laying the groundwork for the next comprehensive campaign.

Licari highlighted this fall’s enrollment with an increase of about eight percent, which was said to be an important factor in terms of the university’s budget as Tennessee did not increase state appropriations this fiscal year.

“The enrollment increase that we saw this fall was the biggest increase amongst all of the LGIs [locally governed institutions] in the state,” said Licari.

Along with stressing the importance of ensuring that campus remains an energetic place for students and faculty, he also emphasized the importance of growing other enrollment pathways for students of all kinds: transfer students, graduate students, military students, returning students and all others.

Though the university has had much success when it comes to recruiting effectively, providing students with the resources they need to be successful throughout and beyond their college experience is just as significant.

“We need to improve our ability to hang on to our current students, get them across the finish line and provide them experiences that they need while they are here so that they are successful after graduation,” said Licari.

Lastly in order to ensure these three priorities are successful, Licari mentioned the need to continue laying groundwork for the next comprehensive campaign which will be financially important in supporting the three other initiatives for the year.

The presentation then continued with the divisional leaders contributing their goals and plans, touching on topics such as THEC formula and how it impacts APSU, as well as state funding updates, tuition and fee increase updates and divisional budgets.

The end of the meeting was opened up for a Q&A for anyone to express their questions, comments and concerns. For those who missed the meeting or would like to learn more, visit https://www.apsu.edu/budget/budget-townhall to watch the recorded session.