Not Good News

modestmelody
Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:58:55 +0000

Except that Brown has already committed to not changing aid policies to undergraduates, we’ve stopped increasing the number of PhD candidates in each class but we’re retaining the same numbers, tuition is specifically not going to be raised as much as it has recently because we’re aware that people can’t pay the increased costs, EFC is nearly entirely set by the federal government’s paperwork and Brown rarely changes that number unless there are extenuating circumstances (typically business owners who have a lot of equity but not liquid assets), we already don’t have a practice of really hiring adjuncts-- there are very few adjuncts or lecturers at Brown because it’s counter to our academic philosophy and we’d rather have a worse faculty:student ratio, but considering that we’re not firing people and we’ve increased the faculty by 80 some odd professors in the last 4 years we’re not really at risk for that either, and finally, the fact that the major cuts Brown is looking at right now is removing administration specifically-- including administrative support that didn’t exist 20 years ago in departments-- everything you’re saying is nonsense conjecture ignoring the reality of the nature of the cuts we’re looking to make and Brown’s priority.

I don’t understand how you think you know what Brown’s priorities for spending are when your experience with Brown is limited to not liking and admissions info session’s room and your tour guide.

Are you going on every board and talking about how you know how they’re going to restructure their budget?

Honestly, its outlined pretty clear right now-- graduate stipends are freezing, no more increases in the number of graduate students, expectation of increased aid output and not raising the tuition as much as we’d like because people won’t be able to afford it, suspension of major building projects until full capital is raised, hiring freeze even when the positions have already been approved by the dean of the faculty, and a major attempt to overhaul and lower administrative expenditures.

In the mean time, giving rate is barely down, our goal for the largest fundraising campaign in history is nearly met, and we’re facing challenges comparable to every other university in our peer group.

There may have to be some radical restructuring, but to say that Brown is in more danger than say, several schools that have recently been fighting to win students by building huge, beautiful dorms at huge expense with deficit spending or schools that depend on large enticing merit aid packages to attract top students… well that’s nonsense.

This is going to be very difficult for every single school in the country. State schools have been in SERIOUS trouble for several years now as the public rebels against increased tuition (often by very small amounts in absolute dollars) that these schools have needed simply to survive because the state has cut so much funding in the last 15 years. If you think the situation will not be extremely dire for these institutions, especially as they get even more filled as students turn to public ed as a cheaper alternative, you’re nuts.

The problem at Brown is far from a unique one, and having 2B in the bank for 6k undergraduates is a pretty great place to be relative to oh say, 3975 of the 4000 (bs numbers) colleges and universities in the US.

Still top of the heap with money and resources relative to the whole, still in the middle of our peers, still going to survive these pressures as will most schools.