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| Vol. 24, No. 24 | June 4, 1999 |
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| Vol. 24, No. 24 | June 4, 1999 |
BY HANNAH FAIRFIELD
The operating budget for the 1999-2000 academic year is in place, bringing total expenditures to $1.543 billion, a 3.7 percent increase above the current year. The University Trustees approved the budget on June 4.
"As Columbia prepares to enter the next century, its academic and research programs exhibit impressive forward momentum, its financial condition is sound and its physical and technology infrastructure is strong," President George Rupp reported in his budget message.
To maintain Columbia's momentum, the budget will "take advantage of a robust economic environment and the renewal of New York City, and ... capitalize on the technology revolution that is affecting virtually every aspect of our enterprise," Rupp said. He emphasized that the libraries, information systems and technology, physical science and biomedical research, faculty and student housing, and the refurbishment of classrooms and laboratories are priorities for a new five-year capital program.
A $56.8 million increase in revenue is expected next year, as a result of additional tuition revenue, gifts and endowment income, external sponsorship of research grants, and physicians private practice incomes.
Revenues for the next year are projected to reach $1.551 billion, a 3.8 percent increase above the current year.
In his message, Rupp said that it was critical to reserve a portion of the current revenue for investments that will yield long-term benefits, so that future students and faculties can flourish. "By avoiding complacency-even in relatively robust economic times-and requiring a continual re-examination of what we do and how we do it, the solid foundation that has been built so far will enable even greater accomplishments in the decades ahead," he said.
Five-Year Capital Program
As Columbia looks toward the millennium, it prepares to embark on a five-year capital program. The total cost of the program is $848 million, of which 39.5 percent will be financed with bonds and internal loans, and the remainder with operating revenues, gifts, grants and endowment. Projects on the agenda include: the next phase of the Butler Library renovation; restoration of three McKim, Mead and White buildings (Avery, Chandler and Hamilton halls); the improvement of three residence halls; the replacement of the crew team's boathouse at Baker Field; the creation of an off-site book storage facility (to be shared with Princeton and the New York Public Library) to solve Butler's space constraints, and several hundred new housing units for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty. In addition, three proposed construction projects require funding in order to break ground in the next five years: a new building for the School of Social Work, the third building in the Audubon Research Park at the Health Sciences campus and a replacement for the geochemistry building at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Tuition Rate
The University composite tuition rate, which is the average of all the schools' tuition rates weighted by their percentage of total enrollment, will increase by 4.7 percent in 1999-2000, a significant decline from the 5.9 percent increase that occurred in 1998-1999. Undergraduate tuition will rise by only 3.9 percent, the lowest rate in more than a decade.
Endowment Spending
In October 1998, the University Trustees adopted a new Spending Rule that dictates the amount of endowment spending based on investment performance and inflation data. The overall rate of spending, measured as a percentage of the endowment's market value as of July 1998, is projected at 4.5 percent. Next year will be the cutoff point for those few schools still completing their multi-year budget balancing programs, which means that they will no longer draw any income from their endowments other than the amount now permitted under the University endowment spending rule. Arts and Sciences, which faced a series of revenue deficits during most of the 1990s, has successfully produced a balanced budget for 1999-2000.
Health Sciences
Despite the challenges facing our medical school and teaching hospital from government policies and the managed care industry, the Health Sciences division is maintaining its financial strength. Members of the clinical faculty have combined forces with Cornell University to market their managed care services together, under Columbia-Cornell Care Inc., which gives them a strong position in the increasingly competitive health care environment.