“There (was) a lot of strategizing about how we shift and adjust within the university to free up resources,” Beekman said. “We walked through the various options like being more efficient about using buildings and how to reduce health care.”

All of the trustees attended the retreat, along with Beekman, President Lou Anna K. Simon, Provost Kim Wilcox, Vice President for Finance and Operations Fred Poston and Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel Bob Noto. Bob Groves, vice president for University Advancement, attended the retreat to give a presentation, but didn’t stay in Holland, according to information from Beekman’s office.

Trustee Colleen McNamara said almost everything the board discussed was related to the budget.

“What we focused on almost completely was the really dire situation with the economy and how that’s affecting MSU and how the revenue from state appropriations will continue … to dwindle and how at the university we intend to deal with that while maintaining excellence,” she said.

Trustee Donald Nugent said the board combed through all areas of the budget, from purchasing to transportation costs and focused on some key questions.

“What do we have to do to maintain a quality education at the least possible cost?” Nugent said. “What kind of cuts do we have to make to not damage MSU and still be financially stable?”

Despite the discussions, Nugent said more time would be needed to plan for the future.

“It’ll take more than one or two days to get it all taken care of,” he said.

The board also toured the MSU Bioeconomy Institute, a facility that was given to MSU by Pfizer in 2007. Wilcox and Poston didn’t tour the plant since they had done so before. They left Holland on Monday night and the others stayed for Simon’s evaluation Tuesday, Beekman said.

Beekman had no comment on the evaluation and said it is a personnel matter.

McNamara said the facility in Holland was “terrific.”

“It was a place for us to do research and for them to be entrepreneurial,” she said. “It’s a beautiful facility, we’re lucky to have it. There’s very motivated community people who want to make this work, they worked with us to get there and they have a stake in making sure it succeeds.”

McNamara said the coming challenges would be tough.

“This was probably one of the most sobering retreats I’ve been at,” she said. “We have big challenges — the president wanted to make sure we understood. There will be hard things happening this year.”