Stock market tumbles, college cuts budget by 5.5%

Home News Stock market tumbles, college cuts budget by 5.5%
Stock market tumbles, college cuts budget by 5.5%

budget
Due to fluctuations in the stock market, Hillsdale College is looking to cut 5.5 percent from its operating costs.
Wikimedia Commons | Courtesy

Hillsdale College will cut its operating budget by 5.5 percent this upcoming year, due to a potential decrease in revenue resulting from the struggling stock market.
Student tuition, gifts, and the endowment, which relies heavily on the stock market, each constitute about a third of the college’s revenue.
Vice President of Finance Patrick Flannery said when any of these areas are negatively impacted, he reviews the budget cautiously.
When the stock market dropped in January, Flannery said he “pulled the trigger” and told every department to cut its budget by 5.5 percent for the next fiscal year.
From there, each department head chose how to cut costs in the best way for them.
“Everyone understands and wants to work as a team,” Flannery said.
Across the board, staff and faculty emphasized that they do not believe students will notice the budget cuts.
Director of Athletics Don Brubacher said that while it’s never fun making cuts to an already tight budget, he believes Hillsdale is better than most colleges about anticipating cuts in a way that makes the process much easier to manage.
“From my observations, Hillsdale is better managed than most,” Brubacher said. “Others won’t start cutting until they are already in a huge deficit, and then they are in a bad place.”
Brubacher said that the cuts in the sports department will not impact student scholarships. Instead, he will look to save money on things like travel and technology.
Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé agreed that the cuts in the departments under his purview are unlikely to affect students.
“We don’t have a lot of areas where we have discretionary funds, so it will create a little pain for sure,” Péwé said. “But I don’t think the students will notice the cuts because we won’t be operating facilities any differently.”