School cuts costs, ends hires

Author: Amanda Cormier

President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz issued a campus-wide memo Oct. 8 outlining how the College will ensure its financial health during the global economic downturn through an immediate hiring freeze and a careful reduction in spending.

The memo served as a follow-up to a previous memo sent Sept. 8, which initiated the 18-month process of "looking at ways to reduce operating costs across the institution" to offset an expected reduction in charitable giving and declining support from the endowment.

Liebowitz listed several immediate changes in the Oct. 8 memo, including an institutional hiring freeze on all but "essential" positions, cuts in new construction and renovation projects, and a reduction in College traveling. Liebowitz anticipated more changes to arise from student, faculty and staff suggestions at meetings of the newly formed Budget Oversight Committee (BOC) and from an online suggestion box posted Oct. 13.

Addressing the option of generating revenue from the student comprehensive fee, Liebowitz wrote that "there are limits to how much we can and want to raise" the fee. He said that these limits will be known after significant work by the Administration and the Student Comprehensive Fee Committee, before the fee is recommended to the Trustees in February.

"This work is just starting," he said. "There is a balance that needs to be respected between what families can afford and the resources needed to provide the highest quality academic program, and we have that in mind as we consider all that goes into setting the fee."

The BOC, which Student Government Association (SGA) President Bobby Joe Smith III '09 said was set to meet Oct. 22, will be convened by Chief Financial Officer Patrick Norton. Norton said that the Committee will engage students in small groups to address specific issues related to the budget.

"The BOC includes faculty, staff and students and will identify ways to reduce costs and spending following engagement with members of the community and appoint, as necessary, small groups to work on specific issues related to cost control and spending reductions," he said. "Recommendations on how to control costs will be made to the president."

Smith and Caroline Woodworth '09, chair of SGA's Finance Committee, represent students in the BOC. Smith said that although he has not yet received any suggestions from students regarding the budget, he hopes that both the SGA and BOC can better inform students of Middlebury's place among the financial crisis.

"I don't think many students know what is going on entirely," Smith said. "They know that there is going to be a Budget Oversight Committee and they are aware of the economic condition in the United States, but I don't think they understand how it is going to affect Middlebury. That is where the SGA and BOC are going to step in to inform students and get their input on how we can best improve the budget problems."

Smith said that students can immediately cut College spending by reducing energy use, returning dining hall dishes and making efforts to invest more in the local economy. Smith also said policies that enable students to invest in the local economy should be a focus of discussion in meetings of the BOC.

"[The MiddCard initiative], a policy initiative on my platform while running for office, would make it easier for students to spend money on campus and within the community," Smith said. "It would help auxiliaries such as The Grille, the Juice Bar and Midd Xpress, which the school has to subsidize in the [range of] millions."

In 2002, the College made similar efforts to cut spending during an economic downturn. As Acting President at the time, Liebowitz said these changes were effective at "tightening the belt," although the economic situation at the time was less complex.

"We made selective, but significant, budget cuts across the institution, while trying, first and foremost, to preserve the academic program," Liebowitz said. "Salaries and travel budgets were reduced, winter term off-campus courses were suspended for several years, funds set aside for maintaining the campus infrastructure were reduced and we increased the amount set aside for contingencies in the annual budget."