Progress on the Operating Budget

As we prepare for the upcoming meeting with the Board of Trustees, we write to update you on recent progress in relation to the College’s budget. As you know from previous communications from President Johnson as well as from discussions at Academic Council, Administrative Council, and sessions for staff about the College’s budget, we are continuing along a multiyear pathway to develop a more sustainable operating budget—one that fully supports the academic program and residential life, provides for investment in innovation in the educational program, and enables us to repair and maintain the buildings and campus to support people and programs.

Wellesley is an institution of great strength, with extraordinary faculty and students, engaged alumnae, and dedicated staff. The 17% increase in applications in each of the past two years is a testimony to this strength, as is the past and current financial support of alumnae and other donors that make a Wellesley education possible. Despite these strengths, we need to move from incurring significant operating deficits each year to a situation in which there is sufficient revenue to fund the ongoing expenses of the organization (faculty and staff salary and benefits, technology, facilities operations, and other expenses) as well as address the deferred maintenance needs of our academic buildings, residence halls, and other campus buildings. This is a college-wide effort, one that involves increasing revenue as well as reducing expenses.

Our fundamental message to you now is that the steps initiated over the past nine months, beginning with offering the Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP), are moving the College significantly toward a more balanced budget outlook for FY19 and beyond.

Some members of the community have expressed concern about layoffs. Layoffs were not part of the VRP. We offered the VRP in order to reach the goals outlined by the Budget Advisory Committee in 2016 (to reduce the size of the faculty by 10% and to save administrative costs), and to achieve those goals without significant layoffs. The VRP was successful; it was well-received by the community (both faculty and staff), and elections were higher than projected. There are no plans for an across-the-board layoff such as the one that occurred in 2009.

We want to thank the many people who have been working within departments and collaborating across divisions and departments to effect change. This includes the committees of Academic Council that are advising on academic staffing or budgetary issues, those engaged in new cross-divisional partnerships, and staff who have identified ways to simplify work or reduce costs.