SEAS budget withstands endowment decrease

As schools across Columbia cope with a decrease in endowment funds, a recent University statement said that the School of Engineering and Applied Science will be affected relatively minimally.

One financially motivated SEAS change will include an extension of planned projects over longer periods of time to save money.

“SEAS carefully reviews all its expenditures, including its administrative salaries, requires competitive bidding for projects, and actively works to maintain or reduce recurring costs for items such as office supplies,” Director of Media Relations Robert Hornsby said in the statement. “In addition, the School is apportioning its capital spending for necessary renovations so that upcoming projects will be contracted over a longer period of time,” he added.

In late January, when University President Lee Bollinger announced portfolio losses of 15 percent over the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2008, he called for an eight percent decrease in endowment payout across all budget units. Bollinger referred to “hard choices in the months ahead,” and Provost Alan Brinkley said in an interview that he hoped to save money without causing “irrevocable damage.”

Interim SEAS Dean Gerald Navratil noted that the school was less affected by the endowment cut than others, since “at SEAS we only depend on our endowment for 15 percent of our operations.”

Peter Valeiras, Engineering Student Council president and SEAS ’09, noted that other universities, such as Harvard, who are endowment-dependent, have suffered more than Columbia overall.

Administrators have said SEAS benefits from a diversified revenue portfolio, which decreases the school’s endowment dependence. A significant source of annual revenue for SEAS comes from research activity—which may even stand to benefit, due to the new stimulus programs and research funding made available through the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense.

As for next year’s SEAS budget, Navratil said the endowment drop will not have a significant effect on the school’s plans.

Unlike the College, SEAS anticipates no change in the student-faculty ratio in Engineering classes. “Any changes to class size for SEAS students might occur in Core Curriculum courses, and those small changes should be negligible,” Hornsby wrote in the statement. He added that, also unlike the College which will enroll an additional 50 students in the class of 2013, SEAS will not see an increase in class size.

Preparing for the worst, SEAS has reserved additional funds to sustain the recent enhancements for student financial aid, and has also budgeted support for unexpected changes in family income levels and need.

“While it [SEAS] is not immune to the effects of the economic conditions in the world outside its walls, and while its resilience may be tested, there is every reason to believe that the School will continue its steady progress, both nationally and internationally,” Hornsby wrote. “Albeit at a slower pace than would occur in a better economy.”

Valeiras said that fundraising will help balance the losses. He added that the school remains ahead on its annual giving campaigns. Last year, the annual fund increased from 9,000 dollars per year to 1.4 million. This year, SEAS raised slightly more money.

SEAS also expects other annual revenue sources, including patent licensing fees, to be higher.