<p>In response to the downturn in the state economy, Lafayette College will reduce its operating budget by $11 million, or roughly 10 percent, over the next four fiscal years, according to a memo sent to faculty, staff and students this week.</p>
<pre><code>"In order to maintain the quality of our academic programs, we must stay ahead of the challenges we face and make necessary cost adjustments over a three- to four-year budgeting horizon," college president Daniel H. Weiss said in the Wednesday memo.
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<p>The college plans to cut costs by reducing the amount of endowment it provides to support annual operations by about $7.5 million over the next three years, according to the memo.</p>
<p>Weiss said they also will seek to reduce non-faculty wages through a hiring freeze and a combination of attrition, non-compensated leaves of absence, voluntary furloughs and retirement incentives.</p>
<pre><code>Weiss said: "As we look to the future, two important facts will undoubtedly be true: 1) the College will be unable to maintain all of the programs and services it now currently offers, and 2) while respecting our institution's history and traditions, we will need to think carefully and creatively about our priorities in providing an outstanding educational experience for our students."
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<p>Is there a sense "on the ground" at this point as to how much impact this will have on the overall experience? Lafayette's endowment going into the economic crisis was about $700 mil - my guess is that they were using about 5% per year for operational expenses thus the need to trim about $10 mil.</p>
<p>I would think at most publics and LACs it's no longer "business as usual" but any comments from the Lafayette community regarding this would be helpful.</p>
<p>When my family toured the campus on May 2 the asst. dean who lead our info session referred to budget cuts on the horizon. She went out of her way to assure us that the cuts would be in administrative areas, not academic. She used an example of no more refreshments at staff meetings, etc.</p>
<p>Cuts are coming to all institutions of higher learning and Lafayette certainly won’t be the exception. I was up at Amherst College this past week and asked an admissions officer his opinion of the lead editorial in the student newspaper, which strongly implied that cuts to financial aid were in the offing. We haven’t seen any hints of this yet at Lafayette, nor hints that the academic side of operations are threatened. Matter of fact, it has largely been the opposite. On the other hand, Lafayette admissions did go “need aware” for the last 5% of applications reviewed from what I have heard (perhaps wrongly?) so there may yet be some bad news down the pike on the FA side.</p>
<p>I see I didn’t finish my thought re: Amherst and financial aid. The admissions officer told me essentially that everything was on the table and he wouldn’t rule out – or in – cuts in financial aid next year. But again, that was one opinion.</p>
<p>hudsonvalley51 I believe your info is correct. Lafayette cut back on some of their merit scholarships and diverted the funds to FA instead. They are also aiming to increase the size of the class of 2013 just slightly (my S is 2011, he has 590 in his class, I think the incoming class was to be more like 610 - certainly not a huge difference).</p>
<p>The college is continuing with its plans to increase the number of faculty without substantially increasing students, in an effort to lower the faculty:student ration from 11:1 to 9:1. There will be 8 additional faculty on staff next year.</p>