CU Streamlines Budget for FY '10

The significant decline in Columbia University’s endowment has necessitated a wide variety of budget cuts, including the deferment of programs in the works—changes that administrators call doing more with less.

On Jan. 28, University President Lee Bollinger sent out a campus-wide e-mail that reported a 15 percent decline in the University’s investment performance as of Dec. 31, 2008. The economic crisis will cause the endowment to drop by slightly over 20 percent overall in the near future, University Provost Alan Brinkley estimated in an interview on Thursday. Budget units have been asked to anticipate an eight percent decrease in the endowment funds they will receive in the next fiscal year. The news and speculations have raised questions about what exactly would be done to compensate for the losses—which programs and jobs would be reduced, cut, or parsed out from the University’s budget.

In an interview on Friday, Bollinger said that reductions would be made “school by school, because it’s a decentralized financial system...The impact will vary. Some are very reliant or more reliant on endowment, some are less.” Bollinger noted that the central administration is quite reliant on the endowment, “so we’re cutting back quite significantly in a number of areas.”

Brinkley confirmed that the University will have to postpone many programs intended to “improve life at Columbia,” and that salary increases and administrative and faculty hiring will be diminished. He said that overall, budget changes do not represent “a step backwards, it’s just not taking a step forward.”

“We’re not replacing many of the people who have left their jobs,” Brinkley explained, “and that reduces the amount of service that’s available for the University.”

As Senior Vice Provost Stephen Rittenburg noted, the filling of each vacant position must be “justified.” A hiring review board oversees the filling of every new position in the central administration, and some schools have augmented the same structure. Additionally, some academic searches have been deferred.

An expected increased need for financial aid could strain University finances as well. The increased need, coupled with the enhanced aid program implemented last year and the University’s commitment to need-blind financial aid among undergraduates in Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, could require an increase in the financial aid budget. This, plus the “reduced income” from Masters programs and continuing education revenue, indicates the “pain” that Columbia’s finances are feeling, Brinkley said.

Brinkley’s main concern is that budget changes do not interfere with Columbia’s academic quality.

“We should try to reduce expenses in ways that would not impinge on the quality of teaching more than necessary,” he said, adding that the changes aimed to prevent “irrevocable damage.”

However, students will see some changes in the future. For instance, the volume of courses offered each semester may decrease, especially in light of the University’s now-restricted hiring practices.

Rittenberg added that this is a time at which every department and school at the University has to think “creatively” about becoming more financially efficient.

“It isn’t simply eliminating positions,” he said. “It’s really a call on departments and schools to think about how they can do their jobs, protect their core missions, with less resources than they’ve had in the past.”

Additionally, many programs that were scheduled to make progress have been delayed or stopped completely. Brinkley said that one such “disappointment” is the deferment of a new CourseWorks system called Sakai, which has “been in the works for many years” to replace the current system. This is just one example of a list of programs—which Brinkley says is “as long as my arm”—that have been stalled due to a lack of available funds.

Budget cuts are largely decided by Brinkley’s office, which makes decisions according to “budgetary priorities”—in other words, preserving as many current programs as possible while pushing back projects that would impose new costs.

The University has seen an increase in donations but Brinkley said any further growth is unlikely.

The University’s budget is being reworked in anticipation for the considerable reduction in the endowment’s payout in fiscal year 2010. Accordingly, many more changes can be expected in the future.