First Round of Budget Cuts Announced
In an all-campus email late today, President of the College Ron Liebowitz announced some of the first round of cuts to affect Middlebury services.
What students need to know:
- “Beginning in Winter Term 2010, Atwater dining hall will no longer operate as a regular College dining hall, and instead will become a special events venue to host dinners and receptions associated with campus lectures, the language table program, student social events, and other activities. When Atwater ceases to function as a regular dining hall, the renovated and expanded Proctor and a slightly expanded Ross will be the venues for the student meal plan.”
- “The College will close Rehearsals Café, effective immediately, in order to reduce operational costs at that location.”
- “The College will eliminate the MiddView program, including the overnight camping trips known as MOO. In its place, the College will develop an orientation program that is cost-effective and makes good use of the resources available on and around the Middlebury campus.”
- “…for the coming year, the College will reduce the amount of financial aid set aside for incoming international students. The reduction in aid for the first-year class will likely result in a decrease in the number of international students in the entering class. Despite this expected decline, the overall number of international students in the student body will continue to exceed the College’s goal of 10%. In addition, the projected amount of financial aid committed for international students next year ($8 million) will still be higher than the average amount of aid awarded over the past three years ($7.5 million/year).”
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“The hours of operation for the Grille/Juice Bar will be reduced to reflect demand.”
What faculty and staff members need to know:
- The staff attrition goals remain the same, as previously reported. “The College will pursue the goal of reducing staff by at least 10% of current levels through attrition by 2011. This means we are aiming for a reduction of at least 100 staff positions.”
- “The Director of Business Services will work to reduce the discounts we provide to employees and other friends of the College for the use of [the Golf Course and the Snow Bowl]. These changes will be introduced during the summer of ’09 and the winter of ’09-’10.”
- “The faculty and staff lunch venue will move from its temporary location in the CFA to the Crest Room in McCullough. Although this change will limit the ability of student organizations to use the Crest Room during the morning and lunch hours, students will have access to the space in the late afternoon and evenings.”
- Compensation: “Though we are committed to competitive salaries for our faculty and staff, and recognize their importance in hiring and retaining the best faculty and staff, we believe it would be unwise to raise salaries this coming year as if it were business as usual, especially when the cost of living has not increased significantly (0.1 percent) since December of 2007. We will provide a 2% raise for employees who earn $50,000 or less, but hold flat the salaries for those who earn above $50,000. In addition, all members of President’s Staff, which includes 16 colleagues, will take at least a 2.5% reduction in salary. Vice presidents will take a 5% cut, and my salary will be reduced by 10%. This will be the second year in a row that the vice presidents and I have not received a salary increase.”
Let’s face it: nobody will be excited about the elimination of MOO, or the redeployment, as it were, of Atwater Dining Hall, or the lack of salary increases in July, or any of the other recommendations which the BOC made to President Liebowitz and he in turn accepted. Nevertheless, it is important to look at the bigger picture: it is better to forego a pre-college camping trip, or a Dr. Feelbad at 1:30 a.m. than to have someone lose his or her job. An economic recession requires that we all make sacrifices.
MiddBlog wants to know: What are your thoughts on the budget cuts?
-Sarah F. / Ryan
19 Comments
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keep the financial aid
cut the football program instead.
“Vice presidents will take a 5% cut, and my salary will be reduced by 10%.”
Very respectable.
What I don’t understand is why all these cuts are necessary (yes, I understand some are a really good idea), given the email that was sent out to parents in the fall saying that even if the college took in NO money whatsoever (and that includes 0 tuition!), it would be FOUR YEARS before we’d be in any financial trouble. So, considering that we’ll still be paying tuition, a lot of the cuts are completely unnecessary.
Unless they lied to our parents this Fall…
Confused: can you find and post that memo? The web has all the memos posted on the College’s financial situation, starting in September, and I think Middlebury was commended in some national organization for businesses for being the first one out with warnings to its constituencies that there could be trouble on the horizon, and for the forthrightness in its communications.
If anything, the administration has been transparent about the financial situation, and so I don’t think they “lied.” Even with the rapid deterioration of the stock market, economy, and all college endowments, I doubt the administration ever wrote a memo suggesting it could go 4 years without taking in the money. Yo! President Liebowitz: can you send that memo this way if Confused can’t find his/hers?
And also: as we heard at convocation when we first arrived (and didn’t quite understand, but now do), our comp fee only covers around 65% of what it costs to educate each student. The remaining 35% comes from the endowment (now declining) and fundraising (nobody has $$ to give right now), which is the reason there are now cuts: we can’t sustain the same program with fewer resources.
Very unfortunate news for international students, very unfortunate news indeed. I agree with w, cut the football program instead.
kudos to the execs for taking salary cuts, but cutting financial aid to international students threatens the very heart of middlebury. i’m with whoever suggested cutting the football program – sports can take a back seat to diversity any day (except hockey, which is about the best thing going in town-gown relations)
Just out of curiosity . . . why do some here want to eliminate football?
because its irrelevant to the school.
i’m no football fan, but the elimination of the football program would upset prominent alumni who are some of the few people making donations to the school these days.
why doesn’t the school sell some of the ridiculous art that it has around (smog). If they want to make 20 million dollars, smog is valued at over 2 million dollars as it is, that is 10% of the college’s goal that is just sitting under a blanket of snow and disliked by a solid portion of the student body. Another thing that could go is tire art. Don’t get me wrong, I think that art is great, and that the art program at middlebury is essential, but some of the art that the college has is not pleasing to most people and is millions of dollars just sitting under snow.
Another issue that I take with the whole plan is that it is looking to make cuts that will start to take effect next year or the year after, by which time some project the economy will be recovering and therefore the school will be making money again. Then again, I really don’t understand economics or the like, so I can’t pass judgment.
Brandeis University didn’t just sell their outdoor art, they sold their entire museum: http://theprereq.com/brandeis-plans-art-auction/
One of the best, if unfortunate, ways to keep the budget safe would be to cut financial aid not only for international students but for others as well. As I said, it would be very unfortunate, but it would be very effective if the school is as concerned as they seem to be.
My mom told me about that email, so I’ll ask her if she can find it. If she does, I’ll post it here.
My understanding is that if the College did not take in one more penny, it would take 4 years before the institution became insolvent, which is just a wee bit different than describing that point as being the first moment that we were in financial trouble.
Singling out international students is an act of open discrimination and doesn’t go too well with a need-blind agenda. How are they different from U.S. kids? Oh, right, on average their families have less money and they come from another country. So what? Should this mean that bright students be denied access to realizing their potential?
Honestly, at the time of crisis to stop “buying” the willing brains to feed its economy is just what America needs.
Sentiment: treat everyone equally. If cuts are inevitable, cut evenly.
Confused,
I remember the 4 years thing being mentioned at the student rally as well and Anonymous is right–if we started using all of the money that we have in endowment then at the end of 4 years we wouldn’t have any more money. As a general rule, the college tries to use only the interest it earns on the endowment (~5% of the endowment) so that our bottom line doesn’t dwindle.