FULTON, Mo. - William Woods University will be debt free on Sunday.
School officials recently announced William Woods will pay off the remainder - $4.4 million - of the $8 million in bonds issued to the school in the late '90s.
According to a press release, the bond payments had been scheduled to continue until 2025. University President Jahnae Barnett said in the release that the decision saved the school more than $1.3 million.
"We looked at refinancing (the debt), and as we started looking at it, it just made sense to pay it off early," William Woods Vice President Scott Gallagher said Tuesday. "We just felt like it was a good opportunity for us to be out of debt and put us in a stronger position moving forward."
Gallagher said expenses associated with the university's Imagine Campaign - which includes construction of new sorority housing and an amphitheater as well as renovations to the former presidential residence - did not play a role in the decision to pay the bonds early.
"We were focused primarily on how much we would save if we paid these off now," he said. "It just made sense."
Gallagher said the money to pay off the bonds came from the university's endowment.
"We've been really fortunate in that we don't use the endowment for operating expenses," he said. "It really helps us with things like keeping our tuition down."
Barnett made similar comments in the press release.
"Since 2000, William Woods has never used endowment earnings to bolster our annual operational budget. Instead, these funds have been made available for reinvestment," Barnett said in the release. "By reinvesting our earnings and locking in the profit, we are substantially reducing our risk of downturn."
She also noted that William Woods has ended each fiscal year in the black for 13 consecutive years.