Budget easier than last year

The Board of Trustees approved the $108.5 million preliminary 1997-8 operating budget at their March meeting this year. The budget includes a 4 percent increase in tuition, a 7 percent increase in faculty salaries and a 12 percent increase in financial aid.

The major changes in the budget last year and the elimnation of the College's structural deficit gave the College much more flexibility with its budget this year, according to Vice President for Finance Andy Evans.

The College is also looking forward to a massive capital campaign to start formally in 1999. Initial planning for that campaign is beginning now, and organizers are are inspired by the College's record-breaking fundraising this year.

This year's budget also includes a change in the way the endowment payout rate is determined. Instead of setting a rate at the beginning of the fiscal year, the budget includes a percentage increase in endowmnet spending which is tracked to inflation.

This year's increase accounts for both an increase in inflation and the growth expected in the endowment.

Tuition has been set at $22,282 for next year, but Evans said the figure is subject to some changes. This is a four percent increase of $857 over the $21,425 tuition of last year. Last year's increase was 4 percent as well.

Evans said a major priority in the budgeting process was to keep student fees as low as they could. He said in the past budgets were sometimes made by simply increasing tuition to fit the need for revenue. "The days of thinking of tuition as an endless source are over," Evans said.

The budget for faculty salaries is increasing 7 percent, a raise identical to last year's as well. The increase is broken into some across-the-board increases and some merit increases.

The trustees also approved an increase in total financial aid expenditures of nearly 12 percent. Of the $25.4 million budget for scholarships, $3.8 million will come from the endowment. This is almost a third of all endowment spending projeted for next year.

This is a financial aid increase of $2.7 million above last year's budget of $22.7 million.

One expenditure not yet included in the budget is a $7.3 million withdrawl from the endowment over the next seven years for the upcoming capital campaign. The campaign is slated to be announced publically in 1999, and will fund many of the projects that are being thought about now as part of the long-range planning goals.

It would be the largest capital fundraising campaign in Oberlin's history; according to Vice President for Development Young Dawkins the goal is to accumulate over $150 million within five years.

Dawkins is enthusiastic about the prospect for a successful campaign due in part to the record-breaking fundraising his office has done this year. In April Development had already raised nearly $5 million more than it had a year before.

Dawkins said the improved organization and staffing in the areas of development and alumni affairs is one reason for the larger revenue. He also said the department is thinking much more creatively and seriously about how to say thank you to donors. One way they are doing this is by asking students who benefit from a donation - recipients of a specific scholarship for example - to write a thank-you letter. Response from donors to this approach has been overwhelmingly positive, Dawkins said.

Additionally Dawkins said he thinks donors were beginning to really respond to Dye's leadership of the College.

The capital campaign will be conducted by asking all alumni and friends of Oberlin to consider giving the largest gift they have ever given to Oberlin. Dawkins said the department has been working towards increasing the size of gifts this year.

The last captial campaign ended in 1991 and raised $92 million.