by David Archer
Next weekend the Board of Trustees will convene on campus for a variety of meetings and to approve the 2004-‘05 budget, which includes a proposed 5.25 percent increase in the comprehensive fee, a four percent increase in faculty salaries and a two million dollar increase in the base budget, according to Jonathan Brand, vice president of institutional planning.
Heading into the meeting, the administration would not specify how it intends to spend the increased revenue or why it will propose raising the comprehensive fee for the fifth time in five years. Brand said he would not comment further on the details of the budget before the Board of Trustees imprints its stamp of approval next week and emphasized that the current ‘04-‘05 budget is the committee’s proposal and subject to changes by the board.
Brand also would not say whether he believes the board will approve the budget without making substantial changes. However, Jacob Kaufman-Osborn ‘04, SGA treasurer and a voting member of the Budget Steering Committee, said he expects the board to approve because “it’s a good budget.”
“I think trustees will think it’s a good budget,” Kaufman-Osborn said, “but I think students will think it’s a bad budget.”
Over the past four years the comprehensive fee has increased by 5, 7.5, 5.5 and 4 percent respectively. The comprehensive fee increases have surpassed the rate of inflation in each of the past five years, but educational costs have also surpassed the rate of inflation, according to an explanatory document prepared by the Budget Steering Committee.
In recent years, the Board of Trustees has raised concerns about relying too heavily on the endowment to pay for college operations like instruction and institutional support. Thus, trustees have asked President Russell K. Osgood to form a revenue stream that relies more on tuition and gifts and less on the endowment.
Although the endowment hovers around one billion dollars, the Board of Trustees worries that stock market volatility makes the endowment an unstable source of revenue and renders the college financially vulnerable from year to year.
“Raising tuition is the prime way to reduce reliance on the endowment,” said Kaufman-Osborn.
The Budget Steering Committee settled upon the 5.25 percent increase through a process of guess and check, roughly speaking, Kaufman-Osborn said. Early in the process “someone from Nollen House,” the location of executive offices, made an educated guess about what the comprehensive fee should be next year. The committee then proceeded to adjust the figure as they receive budgetary requests.
Since last fall, the Budget Steering Committee balanced a budget that originally had a 1.28 million dollar deficit, requiring the committee to cut Facilities Management’s budget for small projects and repairs, among other expenditures. Brand said this year’s budget deficit was not uncommon and that requests have outpaced expected revenue by between one and two million dollars in past years. Deficits tend to arise early in the budget modeling process before the committee balances projected expenditures against projected revenues in time for review and approval by the Board of Trustees’ February meeting.
In recent years the administration has attempted to peg the tuition at 90 percent of the average of what Grinnell’s officially designated peer institutions charge for tuition, according to an Nov. 8, 2002 S&B article. Targeting 90 percent relies on some guesswork, however, because anti-trust laws prevent the Budget Steering Committee from knowing what peer institutions plan to charge next year until the figures are publicly released, long after the board approves the budget.
• Information Technology Services (ITS) Director Bill Francis will report on the new Technology Discovery Center (TDC), which will open on Feb. 16. Located at 1233 Park Street, the TDC is the initial stage in the development of a Technology Resource Center on central campus.
• Vice President of Student Services Tom Crady will report on changes in counseling services.
• The board will discuss phase two of the Science Center renovation. According to Dean Jim Swartz, the only component the board will discuss is a new classroom-laboratory at CERA, as there have not been many changes in the rest of the building plan since the board’s October meeting.
• The board will also hear a presentation on the endowment and spending policy, elect a new member and attend a student open forum.
—information collected by Erin Lynch-Klarup
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