Barnard to Increase Tuition by Three Percent

Gregory Brown, vice president of finance and planning at Barnard, announced a 3 percent tuition increase for the 2009-2010 academic year at a financial forum on Monday evening. The hike will amount to an increase of about $1560 more per student, which Barnard hopes will bolster financial aid when coupled with a faculty wage freeze.

At the forum in the James Room, Brown elucidated Barnard’s financial situation. While Brown said the endowment had crossed the $200 million line two years ago, numbers that span Dec. 31, 2008 show a decline of about 25 percent to $163 million. Though the loss seems dramatic, Brown contextualized it with a full explanation of finances at Barnard, illustrating that the absolute loss may not be as extreme as it looks.
Brown used a presentation that he has shown to the Barnard Board of Trustees to illustrate Barnard’s finances, specifically pointing to a pie chart that represented Barnard’s budget revenue for Fiscal Year 2009, whose total added up to $137.6 million. The chart displayed the makeup of the money on which Barnard runs.

78 percent of Barnard’s revenue derives from tuition and room and board. Unrestricted gifts constitute five percent, and 10 percent of the revenue is labeled as “other.” Funds drawn from the endowment constitute only seven percent of revenue—as compared to 13 percent at Columbia and 34 percent at Wellesley—making the absolute losses amount to 25 percent of that seven percent, a meager loss when compared with those of other institutions of higher education.

Brown used a similar chart to outline Barnard’s budget for 2009, explaining how the money would be allocated­—39 percent of Barnard’s annual revenue would go towards salary and wages, 12 percent would be spent on employee benefits, and 18 percent would be slated for fixed costs such as energy costs and the contract that affiliates Barnard with Columbia University. “Variable and discretionary spending” account for 10 percent of the budget.

This breakdown, in part, aided Brown and the trustees in calculating a tuition hike that would help the university meet a projected increase in financial aid requests. By increasing the tuition portion of Barnard’s revenue by three percent, the hike would free up more Barnard grant money for financial aid.

In a recent interview with Spectator, Barnard President Debora Spar stressed that she didn’t “want to see a large tuition increase, because that is asking one part of community to bear the burden. It’s a delicate balancing act.”

“For next year’s budget, we went to the trustees with a proposal for the lowest increase in over ten years for tuition, room, and board,” Brown said. “What we are putting forward for next year is a commitment to financial aid first and foremost,” he said, adding that the faculty has been asked to sacrifice wage increases for the cause.

In the past year alone, Brown noted that 42 percent of Barnard students—about 1,100 students—received some sort of financial aid, up one percent from 2007-2008. The lowest need in the last decade was around five years ago when financial aid recipients made up 37 percent of Barnard students.

“Throughout the history of the institution, financial aid has really been at the core of who we are,” Brown said. Barnard financial aid will count for $28.7 million in Fiscal Year 2009, which ends June 30, and is expected to rise to $30.6 million by the end of Fiscal Year 2010. This year, when the economic crisis caught Barnard by surprise, need for aid increased, and projections fell $1.5 million short. Barnard vice presidents trimmed their budgets in order to make up the difference.

Brown’s numbers for 2010 are estimates, he said, since it’s too early to know what the new need will be for continuing students. Including books, room, and board, tuition annually amounts to about $52,000. According to Barnard Director of Financial Aid Nanette Dilauro, who previously worked at Columbia’s Office of Financial Aid, Columbia’s Board of Trustees has not yet announced any tuition changes and will probably not do so until June.

Barnard’s Trustees are currently considering spending cuts. “I will say the fact that we’re going with no salary increases—at least that’s the recommendation for now,” Brown said. When asked about possible professional cuts, he replied, “I don’t know yet. I’m not projecting layoffs per se, but I’m looking at how we do the business that we do.”

Faculty training will also be reduced, but Barnard will not enact a hiring freeze. “If there’s a search for an open faculty position now, we’re going to complete it and fill that faculty position. As we look at reductions, we’re trying to make sure reductions don’t affect your classroom experience or your living experience.”