MONTPELIER, Vt.—Norwich University, citing improved enrollment, is restoring two varsity sports and a deferred pay raise to faculty and staff.
The school is bringing back its varsity wrestling and tennis programs, which were cut last year as part of a series of belt-tightening measures in the deteriorating economy.
In May, Norwich announced that donations by alumni and friends helped restore the sports for the current academic year after the cuts were announced last December. Officials say that money won't be needed and that the university will fund the sports out of its regular budget.
The money raised privately will be used to enhance the two programs, which involve about 40 students, according to Commandant of Cadets Michael Kelley.
"We don't like cutting programs here," Kelley said.
Norwich President Richard Schneider said he also restored a pay raise for faculty and staff that had been deferred. The pay raise, including back pay, will be distributed to staff later this year.
Schneider said the school also recently finished a $55 million capital campaign a year early and raised a total of $80 million.
"We're cooking. We're firing on all cylinders right now," Schneider said.
In December, the school announced a series of layoffs and other savings designed to help close a $3.6 million budget shortfall in an $80 million budget. Ultimately, 16 people lost their jobs at Norwich and 21 employees had their hours cut.
That was before the fall enrollment figures were known.
Schneider and Kelley said enrollment was up in the freshman class and the number of students leaving -- both freshmen and upper-class members -- were down.
The school has about 2,200 undergraduate students this year, up from about 1,950 a year ago, officials said.
Kelley said athletics was important to Norwich, with about 25 percent of the undergraduate student body playing a varsity sport.
"It was a natural when we saw our position compared to where we thought where we might have been," he said. "We said 'Let's go back and get them.'"
Norwich is the nation's oldest private military academy. There are about 1,250 members of the Corps of Cadets, 750 civilian students and 100 to 200 commuter students, Kelley said.
Kelley said the number of students with ROTC scholarships at Norwich was up three times over last fall.
Schneider said Norwich is in a unique situation.
"Thankfully for us our market position ... is so strong we saw an increase in enrollment," he said. "We're very, very fortunate. That allowed us to have the revenue we didn't think we were going to have."
