Wrighton: Endowment down 25%; wage cuts, construction delays imminent
In an e-mail to the University community on Wednesday morning, Chancellor Wrighton announced that the value of the University’s endowment has declined approximately 25 percent since July and proposed several cost cutting measures.
“With the decline in the value of our endowment, coupled with leveling of research support, constraint on the rate of tuition growth, uncertain prospects for philanthropic support, pressures on healthcare costs, and the prospect of increased needs for financial aid, we must take some actions to assure that our University remains strong into the future, Wrighton wrote. “Whatever the origins and whatever the length of the economic decline, it is important to respond to this new environment. We will constrain the growth of administrative expenses, compensation expenses, and commitments to new building projects.”
Most notably, the Chancellor announced the intention to decrease wages going into the next fiscal year and to “scale back, eliminate, or delay capital projects.”
The e-mail specifically proposed a reduction in the Chancellor’s salary by 10 percent over the next year-a 5 percent cut as of January 1, 2009, and another 5 percent cut effective July 1, 2009-but also stated that school deans and Vice Chancellors have volunteered to have no increase in their compensation in the year ahead.
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