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Throughout the 2008-09 spring semester, the
Committee on Mission and Priorities (CMP) and the Advisory Committee on Resource
Allocation (ACRA) met jointly to advise President Christ on the development
of a strategic plan to meet the college's budget challenges. To keep the Smith community
informed and engaged in the process, summaries of those meetings are posted here.
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Carol Christ
Julia Baker ’09
Giovanna Bellesia
Hailey Bird ’10
Susan Bourque
Ruth Constantine
John Davis |
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David DeSwert
Patricia DiBartolo
Marlowe Dieckmann ’09
Howard Gold
Drew Guswa
Larry Hunt
Patricia Jackson |
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Christian Lagier
Thomas Laughner
Maureen Mahoney
Kevin Quashie
Janie Vanpee
Greg White
Andrew Zimbalist |
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Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission and
Priorities and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
The final meeting of
the year covered three main areas: admission and financial aid for 2010-11; plans
for the comprehensive campaign, the first phase of which will begin July 1; and the
major planning initiatives for next year that will be undertaken by CMP, ACRA and
other groups. With regard to admission issues, Dean of Enrollment Audrey Smith noted
that we are likely to exceed the target discount rate for the class entering this
fall because students are presenting with high financial need; this trend is expected
to accelerate next year, as financial need determinations are made based on 2009
tax returns. Financial aid will be a centerpiece of the upcoming fundraising campaign,
which has a working goal of $500 million and is focused on securing the core of the
Smith experience. Vice President for Advancement Trish Jackson described the campaign
timeline (6-8 years), volunteer structure, budget, events and strategies,
pointing out that it is the most ambitious campaign in Smith’s history. Committee
members discussed the ways in which the campaign will support the Smith Design for
Learning. Noting that CMP and ACRA will return to meeting individually next year,
President Christ outlined the work that they and others will take up: implementation
of the Smith Design for Learning; implementation of the recommendations of the Art & Science
study; a comprehensive review of employee benefits; and recommendations for revenue-generating
academic programs.
Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission
and Priorities and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
Ruth Constantine, vice president for finance
and administration, brought forward a budget request for the operation of Ford Hall,
noting the seriousness of increasing the college’s budget at a time when we
are planning for reductions. The request encompassed professional and custodial positions,
equipment and supplies, equipment maintenance, and fees. Before endorsing the request,
committee members discussed issues of audio-visual equipment purchase and replacement,
noting the need for a comprehensive budgeting process for such in relation to both
registrar-scheduled classrooms and other areas. The remainder of the meeting focused
on the proposed budget reduction plan that was presented to the community on April
13 and which will be presented to the Board of Trustees on May 2. Ruth Constantine
noted that reductions will be implemented as needed but that, at minimum, it seems
clear that $20 million will have to come out of the budget within two years. As stated
in the proposed plan, some 55-60 positions are likely to be affected by a reduction
in hours, elimination, or not filling a vacancy. President Christ said that the board
would vote on a severance plan at its May meeting and would begin discussions of
the potential need for one-time bridging funds to help with implementation of the
plan.
Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission
and Priorities and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
The meeting opened with remarks by Director of Libraries
Chris Loring regarding the potential for reducing the Libraries budget. The proposed
reductions are focused in three areas: acquisitions, consolidation of back-office
operations with Five College libraries, and relocating the Josten Library collection
(music, theater, dance) to Neilson. Regarding sharing collections among the Five
Colleges, Loring explained that a major focus will be on further reducing duplication
of acquisitions among institutions and attempting to achieve more shared purchasing
of electronic resources such as online journals. He noted that journal publishers
have different pricing and access models, with some only willing to sell to individual
institutions, not consortia. In focusing on Josten as the collection to relocate,
Loring said that he and his staff examined a number of factors about each branch
library, including service levels, instructional interactions, research appointments,
and numbers of honors theses. Moving the Josten collection to Neilson would require
a one-time investment in compact shelving.
Herb Nickles, executive director of information technology
services, outlined potential budget reductions in his area, focused on operational
efficiencies, reductions in service, increasing the computer replacement cycle from
four years to five, reducing faculty grants for technology in teaching, and reducing
equipment budgets. Committee members expressed concerns about cuts that could affect
our ability to cooperate with other institutions, whether locally or around the world;
to use technology to “do more with less”; to optimize online resources
for student recruitment; and to expand wireless capacity on campus.
Members of the Committee on Faculty Compensation and
Development (CFCD) joined the final segment of the meeting for a discussion of proposed
benefits reductions. Mahnaz Mahdavi, speaking on behalf of the committee, reported
that faculty favor salary freezes over benefits reductions, seeing the former as
a measure that could be made up over time, and would prefer more time to study possible
changes to benefits. Discussion ensued about whether staff, who earn less than faculty
on average, could sustain a multiple-year wage freeze. CFCD members expressed concern
about the difficulty of discussing these issues without clarity on an institutional
philosophy of the role of benefits in employee compensation.
Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission
and Priorities and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
President Christ opened the meeting by reviewing the
board of trustees' March 7 discussions of the college's financial planning,
which took place in the context of an economic environment that has worsened significantly
since the fall. In light of what many believe will be a deep and prolonged recession,
the board has requested an acceleration of the planning process that will lay out
$30 million in permanent budget reductions over two years. They will review this
plan at their May meeting. Acknowledging that the committees' planning work will
be extremely challenging, President Christ recalled to the group the extraordinary
growth Smith has seen over the last dozen years, including new facilities such as
the campus center and the Brown Fine Arts Center as well as the Picker Engineering
Program and Praxis, a growth trajectory that is now recognized as based, at least
in part, on overvalued assets.
On the main agenda item of the meeting -- achieving
savings by increasing the student–faculty ratio -- President Christ told the
group that it needed to make a recommendation in the next several weeks on whether
to move from a 9:1 to a 10:1 student–to–faculty ratio, a strategy that
would require eliminating, through resignation or retirement, approximately 25–30
positions from the faculty budget. She noted that the group did not need to identify
the specific positions affected but to determine the target ratio. She further affirmed
that decisions did not need to be reached this year about faculty workload or sabbatical
policies. Discussion ensued on whether we should institute a soft freeze on filling
faculty vacancies; whether faculty retirements could be accelerated through an incentive
program, despite the fact that a similar program in 2003–04 was less effective
than expected; the need for departments to take an active role in staffing and curriculum
decisions; whether the committee should review a further ratio change of 11:1 in
recognition of the fact that reducing the faculty further could allow for a reduction
in student enrollment in the future, when the economy improves.
Director of Budgets and Grants David DeSwert informed
the group that $1.5 million of the $4.3 million 2009–10 budget shortfall could
be addressed by eliminating the one–time $1 million contribution to the enrollment
stabilization fund and reducing the one–time budgeted continency from $1 million
to $500,000.
The meeting ended with a brief discussion
of January Term, driven by the fact that UMass will start its 2012–13 spring
semester one week earlier. Aligning our calendar with theirs, thus ending the spring
semester one week early, would affect Interterm but generate significant savings
in energy, dining and student services. The group will review actual savings figures
for such a change, as well as data on enrollment in credit–bearing and non-credit
Interterm courses, at its next meeting.
Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission
and Priorities and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
President Christ opened the meeting by
reminding the group that her January 28 memo to
the community was intended to provide a framework of potential strategies for
budget reduction. The work of CMP/ACRA is to refine the savings estimates put forward
in that memo and then to prioritize the measures the college should take and determine
the steps needed to enact them. She confirmed that the group will meet all day on
April 10 for a financial planning retreat, at which they will be joined by a number
of trustees. Maureen Mahoney, dean of the college, presented a range of ideas discussed
in recent years by the Committee on Study Abroad and the Committee on Academic Priorities
that would lower costs in study abroad while maintaining the centrality of international
study to the Smith experience. The group discussed options such as direct enrollment
in overseas programs, especially in English-speaking countries; alternatives to Smith’s
home-school fee policy; limiting the number of students studying abroad; one-semester
options; non-language programs; and different staffing models and other efficiencies
for some of our JYA programs. The committee continued the discussion of potential
changes to employee benefits begun at its February 19 meeting. John Davis, associate
provost and dean for academic development, noted that Larry Hunt, executive director
of human resources, would be meeting with the Committee on Faculty Compensation and
Development on March 10 to seek their feedback on the options under discussion. Committee
members discussed whether reducing tuition benefits would have a disproportionate
impact on families with young children; whether reducing a benefit that affects relatively
few individuals is necessarily preferable to reducing one that affects many; the
impact of present-day reductions on individuals’ long-term compensation; differences
in staff utilization of specific benefits versus faculty utilization; and whether
benefit reductions are permanent or temporary changes.
Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission
and Priorities and Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
Committee members reviewed the admission
and financial aid budget request for 2009-10. Controlling the tuition discount rate
-- one of the savings strategies outlined in President Christ’s January
28 memo to the community -- will be assisted by Admission’s aim to enroll
643 traditional students and 35 Ada Comstock Scholars. First-year applications are
at an all-time high, international applications are up by one-third, while Ada Comstock
applications have declined 23 percent. Describing the Ada program as an important
program for Smith but not financially sustainable at its current size given the financial
need of Ada students and falling applications, President Christ said she will appoint
a study group to review its policies and enrollment patterns. Committee members discussed
the growth in Smith’s international applications and affirmed the importance
of linking expansion in Smith’s international student body to curricular changes
and offerings. Committee members reviewed the proposed 2009-10 budget, which will
be discussed by the board of trustees in March and approved in May. In addition to
the tuition discount rate, strategies that will be presented to the board to bring
the 2009-10 budget into balance include eliminating the inflationary allowance to
departments; eliminating funding for new initiatives; forgoing faculty and staff
salary increases -- a strategy that committee members voted to recommend; and setting
the endowment spending level at 6.5 percent for one year before bringing it down
to its normal cap of 6 percent over the following two years. Committee members reviewed
a wide range of possible changes in employee benefits to achieve budget savings.
Possibilities under consideration include changes in the college’s health plan
that would hold its costs steady; elimination of the Emeriti retiree health plan;
a 1 percent reduction in retirement contributions; capping the college tuition benefit;
and eliminating tuition subsidies for the Campus School. President Christ noted that
the college would develop grandfathering plans for any changes in tuition benefits.
The meeting closed with a discussion of the facilities projects proposed for the
2009-10 capital budget, which will be reviewed by the board in March. The projects
being put forward are deemed urgent and many address issues of energy savings.
Joint Meeting, Committee on Mission
and Priorities and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation
President Christ opened the meeting by outlining the
main agenda items for the seven joint meetings of the semester. The topics largely
reflect the areas of potential savings outlined in her January
28 memo to the Smith community. By May, she explained, CMP/ACRA will need to
have made the budget decisions necessary for fiscal year 2010. In addition, they
will need to have developed the broad outlines of a three-year financial plan based
on current projections. Those broad outlines, envisioned as a series of actions to
be implemented as needed, will continue to be refined and detailed in the ensuing
years. Members discussed the importance of keeping both short-term and long-term
planning horizons in mind, so as not to be “penny wise and pound foolish.” David
DeSwert, director of budget and grants, discussed financial plan updates that reflect
recent economic conditions. Ruth Constantine, vice president for finance and administration,
advised the group to accept that the loss of endowment income will have a long-term
effect, since no economist is predicting a rapid return to previous investment return
levels. The group discussed the impact of a one-time .5 percent increase in spending
from endowment on the 2009-10 budget, a decision that would require trustee approval.
For the remainder of the meeting, the group considered salary recommendations from
the Committee on Faculty Compensation and Development (CFCD) and Human Resources.
The committees are inclined to recommend a salary freeze for faculty and staff for
2009-10. |
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