Through the Gates
finances
by Annette Kahn
Photograph by Mark Mahaney
barnard bears down on its budget Financial markets continue to plunge and soar, often it seems, based on the headlines of the hour. The economy has wrought havoc with investment portfolios, budgets, operating expenses, and other myriad bottom-line operations. But, in the midst of this tumult, the primary focus of Barnard College remains constant. “Our mission is to educate,” affirms President Debora Spar, “and to provide the highest quality liberal-arts education to promising and ambitious young women.” Spar’s comment was part of her introductory remarks at recent meetings for faculty and staff to explain how this economic instability is challenging current and future College budgets and plans. The keynote speaker was Gregory N. Brown, named chief operating officer of the College as of May 1, who served as vice president of finance and planning for the past three years. Brown, whose experience as financial officer at institutions of higher learning include the University of California-Berkeley, Yale, and most recently, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, elaborated on plans to cope in the nearterm with strained resources. Articulate, and relaxed behind a podium, he quickly got down to the numbers. The immediate question is the College’s endowment: once standing at over $200 million, it had declined to $163 million at the end of 2008. Because Barnard has a smaller endowment than virtually all of its peer institutions, the lower value of its investment portfolio has not affected operations to the degree that endowment-value declines have had on other institutions. Although over one-half of the endowment revenue funds scholarship awards, the spending from the endowment contributes only about 7 percent to operating expenses, notes Brown. The bulk of the College’s operating revenue comes from tuition, room, and board. A small tuition increase of 3 percent, the lowest increase in 10 years, has been approved for the fiscal year 2009-10 in order to minimize the strain on our students and their families during this difficult time. A principal resource for financial aid is unrestricted gifts. In speaking of financial aid, Brown says, “Our biggest concern is to make sure that families who want to send their daughters to Barnard, or keep them enrolled during what may be a financially challenging time for them, can do so.” He himself is a firm believer in the importance of a liberal-arts education: a music major at Wesleyan University, he came to finance through a senior research project involving grantswriting for the arts, and shifted his focus from arts administration to higher education after he took his first job at Yale. Based on recent estimates, Brown anticipates a rise in the demand for financial aid somewhere in the vicinity of 12 percent from 2008–09 to 2009–10, although it is still 6