BY ALEXANDER ROLLE

In print | Published March 26, 2009

On Tuesday, March 24, the administration of Bryn Mawr College hosted an open forum with the community to discuss proposed budget cuts for next year. Due to the economic slump, Bryn Mawr expects that $5.5 million will need to be shaved from next year’s budget. The administration has already made decisions about the first phase of its reductions, which totaled more than $3.8 million. Still needing to make $1.7 million in cuts, the administration is reaching out to the entire campus in hopes of minimizing the impact these changes will have on Bryn Mawr.

At the forum, a handout detailing proposed cost-saving measures adding up to $1.9 million was distributed to the students. Unless the administration identifies alternative cost-cutting methods, it is likely that most of the proposals will be enacted for the next school year. Among the proposals are the closing of Rhodes Dining Hall, one of three dining halls serving Bryn Mawr, and reducing the stock of college computers by 200 machines.

Among the savings from the first phase of budget decisions were $148,000 to “reduce food options in student dining,” and $84,809 from the President’s Office budget to eliminate a position and “reduce entertainment budget,” according to a budget reductions summary issued by the college earlier this month. In addition, the college reduced faculty and staff positions by the equivalent of 23 full time positions, but because most of these savings came from vacated positions that will not be refilled and reassignments, only four employees were actually laid off.

Another $26,000 was saved by reducing “peer mentoring & peer-led instruction programs by 50 percent.” These programs, in which older students help younger students with their schoolwork, are an important part of academics at Bryn Mawr. “Those sessions are really helpful for students,” Emily Allen ’12 said. Of all the cuts, Allen said, the reduced budget for peer mentoring programs was the one that would affect her the most.

As full-time staff start to worry about the possibility of future layoffs, some students are expressing concerns about the security of their own campus jobs. Many work at Rhodes Dining Hall, for example. According to Jerry Berenson, Chief Administrative Officer, the college hopes to save most of these jobs by extending the hours of other dining halls.

According to John Griffith, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer of the college, Bryn Mawr lost about $150 million in the stock market since the recent downturn began. The still-volatile economy makes the situation even more difficult, according to Griffith, since no one can be sure about any institution’s financial future.

In order to make budget decisions that spread the burden of the scale backs as lightly and evenly as possible across the community, three “budget workshops” are to be held in April to give students, faculty and staff the opportunity to weigh in on the proposed cuts. According to Jane McAuliffe, President of Bryn Mawr College, attendees of these workshops will sit down in small groups and talk about how different proposals would affect their lives.

Allen was optimistic about the effect of the workshops on the budget. “I think it’s helpful because they hear the student’s voices.” But, she said, she understood that the administration would have considerations the students don’t know about.

“How do you decide the basis on which to make a particular cut or decision?” asked McAuliffe. The answer, she said, was to “protect the core mission of the college.” For McAuliffe, this mission involves “continuing to attract and retain the best students,” along with attracting and retaining the best faculty. For this reason, McAuliffe emphasized, Bryn Mawr will not be cutting its financial aid budget next year; in fact, it aims to increase aid spending in anticipation of the economy’s effect on students’ ability to pay.

According to McAuliffe, administrators at Bryn Mawr and Haverford colleges have begun discussing ways in which the two schools can save money and improve student services by collaborating more in some administrative areas, which could include provinces as diverse as dining services, facilities management, public safety and the student post office.

As the severity of the economic crisis became apparent earlier this year, administrators at Bryn Mawr started to spend an increasing amount of time preparing for the hard but unavoidable choices to be made. “I think it’s fair to say that we’ve done not much else but talk budget,” McAuliffe said.

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