A nearly $800 million increase in Washington University’s endowment over the past fiscal year is allowing the University to allocate more funds to departments previously subject to significant budget cuts.

The effects of the economic recession that first hit the University around two years ago are just starting to diminish, according to Barbara Feiner, chief financial officer for the University.

“Following the decline in our endowment in fiscal year 2009, we did reduce many budgets in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, primarily in central administrative areas,” Feiner said. “During the current year, we are monitoring expenses carefully, but there have not been widespread budget cuts.”

Numerous departments are seeing the effects of the improving endowment.

University Libraries is seeing an increased budget after suffering from cutbacks over the 2010-2011 year.

“We received an increase in our ongoing collections budget and one-time funds for some large purchases,” Shirley K. Baker, vice chancellor for scholarly resources and dean of University Libraries, said. “And, we were funded to add two positions to the staff to deal with changing library needs.”

Baker said the libraries need the funds to afford increasingly expensive collections, especially scientific journals.

The Office of Residential Life is also having fewer financial difficulties this year, Accounting Manager Joyce Markowski said.

In the previous fiscal year, the office lost five percent of its funding, leading it to postpone its plan to demolish Rubelmann House and forcing it to cut several staff positions. Tim Lempfert, associate director of Residential Life, emphasized that the office specifically avoided cutting programming or College Council funding.

“Budgets change every year depending upon income and expenses,” Markowski said. “We have looked for ways to be more efficient, trim our expenses…in some cases, we have not filled [our] open positions.”

Radha Gopalan, assistant professor at the Olin Business School, said the decreasing cutbacks reflect the University’s improving finances.

“The economy influences university spending by affecting the two important revenue sources: the performance of the endowment and fee income. I believe the decreasing cutbacks are a reflection of improvements on both fronts.”

Some students remain surprised that the University’s endowment suffered in the past, and disagree with the school’s allocation choices.

“I’m surprised that endowment has dropped in past years, especially considering the prestige and accomplishments Wash. U. has been obtaining recently,” sophomore Timothy Greer said. “If I had to change one thing in Wash. U.’s budget, I would allocate more money to athletics and less to keeping the grass green. Wash. U. pays so much for fertilizer and landscaping everywhere on campus and I think the money could be used better for other things.”

Another student suggested the University use its increased endowment to provide more services to undergraduates.

“I would kind of guess they’d do some more construction things, but I hope they’d do things that would be more helpful to students,” senior Zach Lou said. “I’m a senior and I’m really interested in post-grad opportunities.”