To that end, the letter sent by Marx described how academic and non-academic departments have been asked to look closely at their budgets for the spring semester and beyond. In the next few weeks, the letter explained, each non-academic department, including Dining Services and the Physical Plant, will be asked to submit two financial plans, one in which it can reduce total budget by five percent and another in which it can reduce it by 10 percent. Already, the College has decided not to fill 10 to 12 new staff positions that had been approved.
Academic departments, the letter continued, are working with Dean of Faculty Gregory Call to search for cost-cutting measures. To maintain academic quality, the departments have been asked to spend less on “supplies, travel, consultants and other non-salary costs.” To cut spending, the College will also make fewer offers to visiting professors and look harder before hiring new faculty.
“When positions become open because of retirements or other departures from the College, we should think even more carefully before deciding whether or not they should be filled immediately, deferred or perhaps reconfigured,” said Marx’s letter. “This means we may all have to do more with less and work ‘smarter’ to keep the College moving forward as efficiently as possible.”
Marx explained that this approach is different from a hiring freeze, since the College will still look to fill certain vacancies. For example, the current search for a Career Center Director will go forward. He said the College would strive to maintain its stellar faculty to student ratio, though it is possible that certain particularly small classes may have to be cut. The letter also said the pace of program development, including that at the Center for Community Engagement, would be up for review.
To implement these changes, a cost-containment committee comprised of Call and Treasurer Peter Shea among others has been formed to work with the Committee on Priorities and Resources and others to review the budget-reducing recommendations the department managers will make.
At last night’s faculty meeting, College Treasurer Peter Shea said that over the past 10 years, the College has spent well under five percent of its endowment each year. If the College does not act, that number could balloon to 13 or 14 percent, as the College’s once $1.7 billion endowment has shrunk by over 25 percent since June 30.
To that end, Marx stressed that Financial Aid will steer clear of budget cuts. However, despite the announcement that Tufts University, one of the few other need-blind colleges in the nation, may not be able to maintain this policy, the College is committed to maintaining its generosity. Its plan to become need-blind for international students next year is also on course.
Furthermore, the renovations of Merrill Science Center, Frost Library and East Campus — to be financed by the five-year $425 million comprehensive campaign — are still moving forward.
Tufts is not the only college that the economic downturn has affected. Public and private university alike, schools across the nation are tightening their belts. For public schools, state budget cuts will lead to rises in student-faculty ratio, more faculty vacancies and lecturers instead of tenured professors, according to University of California (UC) president Mark G. Yudof. The UC system is being hit with total $113.5 million dollar budget cut while the University of Massachusetts system was cut by $24.6 million for the current fiscal year. The University of Florida has already reduced their faculty by 430 positions and are now required to decrease their budget by another 10 percent.
Private schools are also reviewing their budgets, turning down thermostats, closing unnecessary dormitories and postponing renovation plans. Boston, Cornell and Brown Universities have announced selective hiring freezes, an action Marx has reassured the College that he is not undertaking. Williams College President Morton Owen Schapiro wrote in his e-mail to parents that some renovation and facilities spending will be reduced and non-essential openings left unfilled.
At the wealthiest colleges, endowments normally cover a third of operating costs. But with the recent growth of many endowments, such as Harvard University’s growing 19.8 percent between 2006 to 2007, some lawmakers feel that institutions spend more of their endowments on student tuition. One Senator in particular, Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, wrote in a Los Angeles Times editorial that, “There always seems to be cash for a new arts center named for an alumni donor, a salary increase for the president or a new bronze turtle/bulldog statue from the class of 2006” but not money to pay for tuition. He proposes that Congress should mandate that private institutions spend five percent of endowments of more than $500 million.
Regardless of the fiscal turmoil, Marx, if not optimistic about the economic situation, said the College is in a stronger position than most. “Amherst is probably in better shape than any institution in America” he reassured.