BY MOLLY WESTON

In print | Published January 28, 2010

Cuts in the college budget are, unfortunately, a fact for the foreseeable future. Over the course of the fall semester, the Student Financial Planning Advisory Committee, Student Council and the Ad Hoc Financial Planning Group have worked to include students in the discussion of and decisions regarding these cuts. Especially with the proposed cuts to financial aid, many students have strong opinions about where these cuts should come and what the college’s priorities should be. Over the course of this semester, this column will try to explain how the college’s budget works, where funding comes from, how it is allocated, and how students can be more effective advocates for the priorities they want the college budget to reflect.

Why write a column about the college budget? First, the information the college releases about its budget can be overwhelming. As a result, numbers are thrown around — a billion-dollar endowment, eight million dollars in cuts — without background or context. For the 2009-2010 budget year, the college’s expenditures totaled $107 million. Of those dollars, just over $48 million came from student charges, meaning our families and us. Understanding where the other $60 million dollars comes from and where all $107 million goes requires exploring the worlds of faculty compensation, capital expenditures, annual fund giving and the billion-dollar black box: the endowment. The college has made a number of efforts over the years to make the necessary explanations available to students, but those efforts have been limited in both time and space. It is my hope, through this column, to provide a basic introduction to the ins and outs of the college’s finances, so that students can make sense of the often confusing or isolated information available, particularly as the college’s belt is being tightened along with our own.

Second, informed activists are more effective activists. Each year, student groups push for the college to make policy changes that necessitate spending more money — for example, on financial aid, environmental initiatives or staff salaries. Often, these groups are frustrated in their pursuits and are told that their proposals are simply too expensive. The various bodies that make decisions about the college’s budget have more information about the college’s revenues and expenditures than students, making it difficult for students to make a compelling case for those expenditures to be changed. While some aspects of the college’s budget will always remain opaque, students can and should know more than they do now. When students know more about the budget, they will be able to craft stronger appeals for changes in that budget that take into account the concerns of decision makers. Understanding the college’s budget will help students to shape it to reflect our priorities by making us more thoughtful and more persuasive advocates.

Third, understanding the college’s budget, imperfect though it is, can help us to be more grateful for all of the ways we benefit each day from the college’s wealth. One of the key ways the college differentiates itself from peer schools is through the pursuit of a class-blind campus, in which students’ academic and extracurricular choices are not made by their ability to pay. As the many events of Class Awareness Month and related initiatives have shown, Swarthmore has not always succeeded in this goal; however, it is worth recognizing the steps that have been taken. In particular, without the past generosity of alumni and friends of the college and the ongoing support of alums, parents and friends in addition to tuition payments, our day-to-day lives at Swarthmore would be very different. The college’s budget, as you will see in this column, only works if alumni, parents and friends of the college together donate millions of dollars each year. Without those donations, the lights don’t go on, the shelves don’t get stocked, and the faculty and staff don’t get paid.
Finally, I must confess a less than selfless motive: As a former phone-a-thon caller and philanthropy committee member, I want students to understand the budget so that when they become alums (and even before) they will donate to Swarthmore. As a soon-to-be-hugely-in-debt senior heading to law school and then an emotionally but not financially rewarding career in public service, I will never be a million-dollar donor, and I do not expect my friends and classmates to be either. I will, however, be a small but steady donor and I hope my friends contribute likewise. I am here, both at Swarthmore as a scholarship-supported student and on the planet as a Quaker-Matchbox child, because of the support and generosity of past generations of Swatties. I hope to be able to help provide the opportunities Swarthmore has given me to those who come after me.

I would love to hear from students about their questions about the budget, the endowment, the annual fund, or any other related concerns. Please join us in two weeks as we being our explorations by looking at where the college’s funds come from.

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