For the first year since the onset of President Tom Gerety's tenure, the College was not engaged in a fund-raising campaign, yet managed to raise a total of $27.6 million. "We didn't expect to raise as much this year because there was no campaign and because of the softening of the economy we have been seeing for the past two years, even before Sept. 11," Kiefer said. "Prior to the campaign, we were raising about $12 to $15 million per year. This year was not bad, we expected to raise a little more, about $30 million."
The next capital campaign will be launched in the next two to four years, at the discretion of the Trustees, the new president and the faculty, according to Kiefer.
Kiefer, who went on to address the state of the annual fund, said that he was impressed by the amount of money donated by alumni this year. "The annual fund was quite robust this year, with donations from more than 60 percent of alumni. It was over $7 million dollars for only the second time in history," said Kiefer.
While the College's largest expenditure in the next few years will be implementing the residential master plan, the College will also focus on the presidential transition, off-campus events and the inauguration of the next president.
Additionally, more money has been made available to students applying for unpaid summer internships at non-governmental organizations.
Treasurer Peter Shea continued the update on the College's financial situation during his opening remarks to the faculty. According to Shea, the College had a $31,000 budgetary surplus last year from its $97 million operating budget-the operating budget is approximately $100 million for the coming year. The endowment decreased 3.5 percent from $890 million last year to $860 million, with over $10 million in new gifts.
"In fiscal year 2000, the College experienced almost a 50 percent increase in the endowment from $630 million to $912 million," said Shea. "Endowment spending has been on the low end of our acceptable range over the past few years so we should be able to maintain spending as planned."
Shea also looked favorably on the state of the College's investments, which only experienced a 1.2 percent negative return in this unpredictable bear market. The investment portfolio includes venture capital funds, hedge funds and mid cap stocks.
Shea also commented on the continuation of the infrastructure renovation and the state of on-campus construction. The infrastructure project updates and installs new water, sewage and fiber optics lines across campus.
"Phase II of this project will continue next summer and will be less invasive," said Shea. "Cooper House was completed in mid-August, the Campus Center will be completed during the fall semester and five dorms were fitted with sprinklers this summer."
Overall, the construction has been proceeding as planned, according to administrators. But Professor of English Barry O'Connell raised concern over the narrowing of the drive around the freshman quad and the reduction of parking spaces in an already congested area. "The reduction of parking spaces has only further aggravated the parking shortage we are experiencing on campus. The elimination of the walkway and the narrowing of the drive is also dangerous for the students who walk on the drive-there should be a walkway added and a sign posted. I urge the College to start looking into this as quickly as possible."
Several professors agreed with O'Connell, suggesting that a possible solution was to forbid sophomores from having cars on campus.
"Other schools have tried to forbid sophomores from having cars on campus and it has been nearly impossible to regulate," said President Tom Gerety. It works fairly well for freshman year, but after that, almost no college has been successful in enforcing that rule."