BC halts hiring for unfilled positions to trim budget

In an effort to meet financial aid needs of current and incoming students as well as budgetary concerns, Barnard has reduced some budgets and halted hiring for unfilled positions.

Amidst the current economic recession, Barnard has experienced numerous financial changes. The college’s endowment fell from the $200 million mark two years ago to $163 million as of Dec. 31, 2008. Barnard has addressed financial aid concerns by implementing a 3 percent increase in tuition, or, about $1,560 more per student. With these adjustments, Barnard has had to reassess expenditures.

“To address the budget shortfall, the members of the President’s Council, in consultation with their senior staff, reviewed their budgets and came up with mid-year reductions to close the gap,” Gregory Brown, Barnard vice president for finance and planning, said. “These savings were achieved by freezing or eliminating budgeted positions, deferring equipment purchases, and reducing travel and entertainment costs.” Such reductions, he said, represent approximately 1 percent of the College’s annual budget.

Brown added that Barnard’s operating budget would remain stable in the next school year despite financial pruning. “Barnard’s annual operating budget for 2008-09 is $139 million,” he said. “We expect the total operating budget for 2009-10 to be about the same in the aggregate as this year.” According to Brown, the College’s budget will be decided in June.

Despite finding solutions for budgetary losses, the situation demonstrated a greater need for financial aid than was anticipated. “Once the Fall enrollment was completed and all financial aid awards were made, we determined that the financial aid need of our students was $1.4 million more than our original budget of $27.3 million,” Brown said. He added that mid-year reductions helped meet such costs. Vice presidents were asked to trim their budgets to make up the difference.

The question remains of what the economic crisis means for incoming students and how their financial aid packages will be affected. Brown said that, until Barnard knows what students are planning to enroll, it is not yet clear how the financial crisis will affect them.

“We continue to be need-blind in our admissions policy,” he said. “We won’t really know the extent to which the economic crisis has affected our yield until students accept our offers of admission.”

Regardless of such changes, Brown provided some reassurance regarding the effects of Barnard’s financial setbacks.

“Enrollment has held steady this semester and we have not seen any out of the ordinary requests to modify housing or board contracts this year,” he said. “At least for now, enrollment is stable. We will continue to monitor the economic situation carefully, and we encourage concerned students and their families to work closely with our financial aid office to explore their options.”