Things that seemed not to matter, matter a lot now. Every penny saved is a penny earned. This is the new motto. While all suffer a meltdown, Columbia University has surprised everyone with a new budget. It is bigger than before. Some argue that it is not as much as the previous years, the increase in the budget but it is an increase nevertheless. The University budget went up by 0.40 percent or a $ 12 million increase in the over all $3 billion budget for the fiscal year.
This university is the only now that is not worried about pay cuts or cost cuts. This budget was passed just very recently. However the increase this year is much lower than the previous years. Earlier, the increase would be at least 3.6 percent of the annual fiscal budget. This is happening because this university never much relied on its endowments unlike other colleges like Harvard or Princeton. From its endowments, they used only 13 percent of the $7.1 billion, whereas Princeton spend 45 percent of its $16.3 billion for its annual expenses.
But the endowments of this college too are down by 22 percent from the previous years. But it took a small fall during the market crash and recession unlike the others. While research grants are still high, the fund raising event held last year set a lasting record. They managed to raise $ 495 million in donations only which is the third largest in the nation and they had $ 4 billion capital so all totals to about $ 3.2 billion raised so far.
But everything is not hunky dory. Even with so much money, the university is slowly taking steps to cut down on unnecessary expenses. They too are looking to stabilize their revenues. There has been some selective lay off amongst the staff and management staff. Also the hiring pace has slowed down very much. Plus the salaries of the teaching staff might not be raised for another year.
Yet there is an increase of the number of students in their freshman’s class by 50 students than last year.
Some say with all this meltdown and slowdown, studying further in times like these is the best option. But many colleges and Ivy League colleges are not entertaining students who cannot afford to pay all the money at once. There is a cut in tuition fees too.
Things are bit haphazard but we hope they will be back on track soon. Life must go on, somewhat slow if need be. Don’t let this affect you personally. This is the situation all over the world but the government is trying to put things in order and soon.