PROVIDENCE – Brown University has approved its $1.3 billion consolidated base budget for the 2021 fiscal year, a budget that increases financial support for students, as well as tuition and fee increases, the university announced Tuesday.
Brown noted that numbers still may have to be adjusted to incorporate COVID-19 -related impacts to the Ivy League university’s financial position.
Brown said the University Resource Committee, chaired by Provost Richard M. Locke, creates a budget based on a September-to-April timeline and the approved base budget focuses on finances “prior to the arrival of COVID-19.” The budget “does not incorporate” the full impact on Brown’s finances that the pandemic “will likely have,” the university said.
Up to this point and with the fiscal year ending June 30, COVID-19-related costs have “already exceeded” $25 million for Brown, the university said – in April, the school had lost $20 million at that point. The approved base budget, Brown said, includes the school instituting a hiring freeze, and senior administration – including Locke and Brown President Christina H. Paxson – taking salary reductions between 15% and 20%.
However, Brown said “some of the scenarios” being developed for the university’s 2020-21 academic year predict the university taking a significant financial hit due to the pandemic. The impact could range between $100 million and $200 million, possibly more, “depending on varying forecasts of revenue losses and increased expenses,” Brown said.
Paxson said in a statement that Brown will use the base budget as the “core for developing detailed budgets for a range of scenarios that consider varying trajectories of the pandemic and reflect the significant impact of COVID-19 on Brown’s finances.”
The budget also shows an $8.4 million deficit – which Brown calls “modest” – and the university is working on efforts to fill that hole.
The base budget includes $347 million in total funding in financial support for both undergraduate and graduate students, a 9% increase from a year ago, and $169.6 million in endowment distributions, a 6% increase. However, the payout rate from endowments will drop slightly from 4.85% to 4.8% as part of Brown’s strategy to increase endowment value over the long term in lieu of relying on just tuition and fees.
According to the base budget, tuition and most fees – room and board, health fees and student recreation – will increase between 3.1% and 3.8% for next year. Undergraduate tuition for Brown will cost $59,254 next year, the university said. Total undergraduate tuition, including all fees, will be $76,492 to attend the university next year, while medical school tuition will be $64,974, a 3% increase, Brown said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
