Get Herald RSSIt's official. The National Bureau of Economic Research announced yesterday that the country is in a recession, which naturally sent the major indices into an 8 percent dive (as if this were sudden or startling news).
As the economic outlook has worsened, University officials have released information on their response in fits and starts. First, the University was rather vague. President Ruth Simmons predicted in the October faculty meeting that the timeline on some projects would have to be slowed in order to stay committed to comprehensive financial aid. Officials have had little to say about how much of a slowdown will be necessary.
At the end of October, Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98 informed students the University would be more lenient in accepting late payments and outstanding balances. Both moves - the affirmation of Brown's commitment to financial aid and its flexibility for families facing financial strain - showed a compassionate response that is to be commended.
Beyond short-term compassion, the University also took steps to control costs and plan for the medium-term. In November, Simmons offered more detail and instituted a hiring freeze for staff. She suggested that while faculty searches would go on, the University planned to view any new hiring with a skeptical eye and that administrative structures might be slimmed down. She also wrote to community members that University officials would spend more time fundraising.
With initial steps taken to control costs and reassure families, Brown must now turn its eye to the long term. Administrators and faculty have all but announced that the University will have to delay some of its capital projects, but they have so far declined to offer any details. They have also mysteriously said projects could potentially go ahead if all pledged donations are paid up, leading us to wonder whether there's been a significant problem with donors who are unwilling or unable to fulfill pledges they made in better times.
The time to address the future of capital projects and any problems with fundraising is now. Before Thanksgiving, Princeton released detailed information on its long-term planning, announcing it would lower its fundraising targets, postpone construction of a planned psychology and neuroscience building (sound familiar?) and indefinitely delay several other building projects.
If one of the world's wealthiest universities is taking such critical action, it leaves us worried about the kinds of cuts Brown will have to make. Furthermore, seeing Princeton's specific plans leaves us eager to find out what Simmons and her team have planned for the University's long-term future - hopefully before conditions deteriorate further.
