News from the Bottom Up

Death by a Thousand Cuts:

SLU in a Fiscal Crisis

By: Kerrin Ehrensbeck

Tate Gillman

Rebekah Grim

Robert Meacham

Lauren Morrow

Kristen Shirley

Meltdown, panic, crisis, strife: throughout the past year, the media have bombarded us with these dismal words about our country’s economic situation.  At this point, we know how big business has been affected by the economic crisis and some of us have undoubtedly been personally affected by job loss and budgetary adjustments at home; however, we are largely left in the dark in terms of the recession’s effect on private universities. Like many of its competitors, St. Lawrence University has been faced with the difficult task of cutting down on its expenses while attempting to maintain the “student experience” that has given SLU its legacy.  However, we must ask: where is the breaking point? How much is too much?  Is St. Lawrence headed for a death by a thousand cuts?

A Visit from the Ghost of Crises Past

St. Lawrence University was founded in Canton, New York in 1856, and began operating after the New York State Legislature appropriated $25,000 to the school in 1857.  Of this amount, $10,000 would be spent on “books and apparatus,” and $15,000 would be saved as a permanent fund, “on condition that an additional sum of $25,000 should be raised for the endowment of the school by its friends” (Robinson). The first year of school was a huge struggle in almost every way imaginable. The tuition paid by the students did not cover the costs of operation, the professors were not paid enough and soon the Civil War made it nearly impossible for the school to find enough professors for the growing number of students.

At the time of its formation, the University consisted of two schools; the College of Letters and Science and the Theological School. They had separate teachers, administrators and funds. In 1886 the productive funds of the College of Letters and Science were down to fifty thousand dollars. The thought of whether or not to close the college lingered in everyone’s mind. One of the school’s professors, Doctor Atwood, worked in New York as well as surrounding states to fundraise $52,000—enough to save the college.

The saving of the college only decreased the severity of the ongoing problem: the University was still not adequately endowed. In 1886, officers of the University began to meet several times a week to plan ways to save the school. By May of that year only eight thousand dollars had been raised, mostly by faculty and alumni. With the University’s financial situation becoming critical it was decided that on June 3^rd, a public meeting in Town Hall, to which the two hundred citizens of Canton were invited, would be held. This meeting is described as “the most critical moment in the history of the college” (St. Lawrence University, Gaines, Black, and Hardie, 83). It started with Judge W. H. Sawyer explaining the insecure state of the college and the need for aid from the citizens of Canton since help from elsewhere was not being given, and the college could not be kept going for much longer. The meeting was quiet and “no one appeared to have anything to say” (St. Lawrence University, Gaines, Black, and Hardie, 83).  Then, one man spoke “on a sudden impulse as he passed the chairman’s desk and himself addressed the meeting in such words as an overflowing spirit prompted” (St. Lawrence University, Gaines, Black, and Hardie, 83). One person after another stood up and finally talked. A large group of students gathered in a corner of the room and sang “The Scarlet and the Brown” for the very first time in public. They sang with such emotion that some of them were moved to tears. Most of the students were poor, but they formed a line up to the desk where every one of them subscribed all the money that they could ever be able to give, making their total subscription over one thousand dollars. After this occurred, almost everyone present went to the desk and subscribed all that they could. The students and community members’ sacrifice for the school saved it from closing, giving it the financial support it needed.

Today, we are faced with a similar crisis.  The current recession has resulted in rising costs paired with a shrinking endowment and donations.  Although we are not faced with the threat of the school closing, we are challenged with inevitable cut backs.  Since 1856, St. Lawrence has grown and progressed in ways unimaginable to its original founders, yet it is the same institution with the same pride for the “scarlet and the brown.”  Just as it did all those years ago, the question looms over the modern St. Lawrence community: What must we do to keep St. Lawrence alive?

Someone’s Gotta Give

Private colleges and universities rely heavily on support from parents, alumni and charitable donations made to their annual funds (a source of income dedicated to things like financial aid, study abroad programs, and campus activities).  However, the recent financial crisis has hit private universities especially hard.  St. Lawrence University has increasingly called upon its alumni and parents of students to bear the burden of budget deficits and looming cut-backs, but unfortunately, the recession has hit them as well.  Between 2008 and 2009, after the economy took a hard hit, there was a drastic decrease in donations, which has recently forced SLU to make some tough cut-backs.

Unfortunately, given the recent financial climate, families are tightening purse strings in order to meet the tuition payments, and are far less likely to offer their alma mater extra “gifts.”   In fact, rather than making additional contributions to these private universities, many previously would-be donors are now instead looking for financial aid for their child, causing donation rates to drop, and budget deficits to grow, according to data gathered by Inside Higher Ed (Epstein 2008).  According to our Alumni and Parent Programs office, St. Lawrence University suffered a 13.9% decrease in donations between 2008 and 2009, which amounts to a loss of over $740,000 (Morreale, 3/2/10).  This devastating decline has contributed to a 5 million dollar budget deficit that the university has recently been scrambling to address.   Because donations from parents of students make up a sizable portion of the annual fund, a large portion of the donations decrease arises when parents who would have been able to meet the tuition payments and also offer an additional donation before the onset of the recession are now unable to, and those who were already unable to afford the tuition before the recession are now even less equipped to do so.  Therefore, the financial aid that would have been provided to certain students before the recession is now shared among those who previously would not have needed it, making it impossible for other students to attend.  Also, according to Dennis Morreale, Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Programs at St. Lawrence, even if parents are still willing to make a contribution on top of tuition expenses, a majority of them are donating at much lower levels than in previous years (3/2/10).  All of these factors contribute to a decrease in the school’s annual fund, and therefore the overall income, which results in several negative consequences.

A major goal of any private university, St. Lawrence included, is to attract a large number of students; this can be achieved by surpassing other colleges and universities that are considered “peer schools” in a number of categories.  For instance, a large determining factor in national rankings for private universities and colleges is the percentage of alumni that give back after graduation, in other words, the “participation rate.”  The higher a college’s national ranking, the more attractive the school is to future students.  Unfortunately the decrease in donations as a result of the recession also meant a decrease in St. Lawrence’s participation rate.  According to Dennis Morreale and the Alumni and Parent Programs office, St. Lawrence’s participation rate took a 2.7% plunge between 2008 and 2009 (3/2/10).  However, although any drop in the participation rate hits hard, St. Lawrence’s drop was minor in comparison to some of its top competitors.  For instance, Colby College suffered a 5.6% decline in participation, while Lafayette College saw a decrease of 5.8%; the participation rate of Wellesley College declined by 4% while Skidmore College dropped by 3.7% (Morreale 3/2/10).  So, although SLU was hit hard by the donation decreases and ensuing drop in participation rates, in comparison to some of its competitors, the university is doing okay (Morreale 3/2/10).  But even so, the reduction in the annual fund will result in some unpleasant cuts on campus.

However, as history has proven, what goes down will eventually come back up in the United States’ economy.  If private colleges and universities look to past examples of the economy “rising out of the ashes,” they will see that the decisions they make today will hopefully sustain them long enough until the economy readjusts. Once alumni get back on their feet, they will no doubt resume donating to their alma mater.  In turn, once the funds from donations are built back up, St. Lawrence will be able to take on more staff, once again aiding their surrounding area.  When asked to look into St. Lawrence’s fiscal future, Dennis Morreale responded hopefully, “If you look at the numbers now, we’re already up significantly from where we were last year.  Yes, we are just beginning to feel the effects [of the recession], but we’re going to start seeing all of the numbers go back up” (3/2/10).  So keep this in mind: if the decrease in alumni donations has had such a drastic negative effect, a post-recession increase may have an equally positive effect.

Layoffs: The Staff Infection

As we examine St. Lawrence University today, we see evidence of the consequences of the loss in revenue due to the economic recession.  St. Lawrence University faces a $5 million deficit on its $110 million operating budget for the next several years, which has the university’s decision-makers scrambling to answer the question that plagues the university’s employees as well as the surrounding area: where will cuts be made?  St. Lawrence University has developed a “Recession Response and Planning Task Group” to undertake the task of deciding what—or who—will go and what will be spared.  Some options currently being discussed include a non-renewal of staff members’ contracts, a blanket pay cut for all senior staff, and implementing a mandatory ten percent contribution toward health care by all employees.  Also, as of late, there has been serious talk of laying off a portion of clerical staff.

When these money-saving options are examined from an outsider’s point of view, they do not appear too drastic; however, given the location of St. Lawrence University, these changes will have a large impact on the surrounding area.  The North Country is an especially impoverished area due to a lack of available jobs.  St. Lawrence University, as one of the largest employers in Canton and the surrounding towns, plays a vital role in sustaining the economic survival of the region.  If some employees lose their jobs, it will add to the region’s dramatic rise in unemployment and poverty. Our current financial crisis has left no party unscathed, and unfortunately, filling the gaping hole left by the decline means decreasing expenses that would otherwise go to employee’s paychecks.  Like many private colleges and universities across the nation, St. Lawrence University may have to cut where it hurts the most: reducing staff.

Staff members do have support during this time of uncertainty.  The Clerical staff makes up secretarial and clerical workers, many of whom are part of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). The CSEA mission includes principles of Honesty, Inclusiveness, Full Participation, Respect, Diversity, Open, Communications, Accountability, and Fiscal Responsibility (cseainc.org), and at St. Lawrence we have about one hundred members. This union represents people that are at the bottom of the pay scale at the university and are often living pay check to pay check (3/4/10). However, although organizations like the CSEA have been helpful in the past with things like contract negotiations, they have remained fairly silent throughout the recent layoff deliberations.

Another way the staff are represented in the decision making process is through the newly formed Recession Response Planning Task Group (RRPTG), which consists of a group of faculty and staff members from different departments on campus.   Members of the RRPTG have been asked to survey the university as a whole and find a way to save five million dollars across all of the departments.  Throughout this past school year, the RRPTG has released several reports to the faculty, staff and students.   They have included in their report a section for salary, wages, benefits and staffing.  In this section of the report they talk about possible salary freezes, deduction of pensions, senior staff pay cuts, review of the different divisions of the university and position elimination. Frankly, these suggestions have most staff members worried.

In accordance with the recommendations made by the RRPTG, the University has recently sent out what they call “Workforce assessments,” a nine-question feedback form that is used to assess a departmental staff’s efficiency and the support their positions give to the St. Lawrence mission.  It includes questions like, “What are the positions and skills of your department’s staff?” and, “What are obstacles to success, and what resources would you wish to have (such as technology) to become more efficient if you lost staff?” (RRPTG).  One great thing about St. Lawrence is the feeling of community within the campus, but lately the feeling among staff members is that SLU’s employees are meaningless.  The last question reads, “If the University continues to find itself in a position of having to reduce costs to balance with revenues, what positions or activities could you imagine eliminating in your area to help reduce cost, and what would you expect as negative effects on the university?” (RRPTG).   We are not just considering cutting a position, but cutting a position that was filled by a person who depends on his or her job for a source of income. Both Patty Ashlaw and Judy Van Kennen, secretaries to the government and economics departments, conclude that the worst thing for them would be not just losing their jobs, but losing friends and being part of an institution that they really enjoy.  President Fox comments on this by saying, “This is what keeps you up at night, because these are people you care about.”

As shocking as it may seem, these staff cuts have been a long time in coming.  The clerical staff has been facing hiring freezes throughout the last several years. For example, if a clerical staff person leaves for some reason, they are at best replaced with temporary staff, and at most not replaced at all. That’s like having a theatrical production with no stage crew; it doesn’t work. This leads to more work for the remaining staff and an increase in work for faculty (3/4/10). One secretary alone can be responsible for ten faculty members (Ashlaw 3/4/10). When a secretary is laid off, the faculty members suddenly have no support staff. To a faculty member, less support staff means less time for the students and more time preparing what the secretary would have taken care of previously (3/4/10).

The reality is that St. Lawrence has grown faster than its revenue can support, and there will be a re-examination of departments, layoffs, freezes, and cuts to the staff. President Fox responds to the issue by saying that we are in “Mission critical to make this thing fly.” We need to find what is absolutely essential to the St. Lawrence experience, something he is very concerned with maintaining—even if it costs some people their jobs (Fox, 2/26/10).

The Facts for Faculty

Although the staff at St. Lawrence may suffer from the harshest cut backs in response to the economic decline, faculty members also face some challenging changes.   According to the most recent RRPTG report, one of two actions will be taken during the 2010-2011 school year that will affect faculty: either a salary freeze, or a retirement contribution reduction. The general consensus among faculty members seems to be that they would rather have their salaries frozen than their pensions reduced.  One of the reasons for this preference is that the retirement contribution reduction would hurt younger faculty because they have not yet built up enough of a retirement cushion (Draper, 2/22/10). Laura Desmond, a professor of religious studies, expressed that since young faculty members attend graduate school, their retirement comes later than in other careers; the proposed reduction in the contributions will make it more difficult for young faculty to invest in their futures (3/2/10).

Shedding a different light on the debate than his fellow faculty members, Dan Look, a first year professor in the mathematics department, stressed that if it was determined necessary, he “would rather see the faculty get salary freezes so that the students will be better off.” However, he added that any drastic change will turn off potential faculty members to the school in the future (2/24/10).

One of the resources faculty members have available to them on campus is representation through the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).  The AAUP is a national organization that represents the workplace interest of faculty. The AAUP’s purpose is to “advance academic freedom and shared governance, to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, and to ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good”(AAUP.org) There are about 60 members of the St. Lawrence faculty that are members of the AAUP.  However, Alan Draper, a professor of the government department as well as a member of the AAUP, explains that “the association has no official role within the structure of the university and that the members meet intermittently and only when needed, depending on the issue that confronts them.”

However, the AAUP has recently stepped up to the plate and proposed a plan to prevent any “drastic change.” Rather than freezing all salaries, the AAUP proposes increasing them according to median change of the New Comparison Group (NCG), which is the group of SLU’s competitor universities (Draper 2/22/10). An important concern to the members of the AAUP is to “not go backwards in the NCG, which is a potential in the report {RRPTG}. We can give up progress, but not go backwards,” says Draper. The question is still being debated, but fortunately faculty members are voicing their opinions.

The Financial Aid Band-Aid

The financial crisis is affecting many aspects of life at St. Lawrence University. Financial aid is at the forefront of many students’ and families’ minds. A meeting with Terry Cowdrey, Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, and Patricia Farmer, Direction of Financial Aid, helps to ease some of our concerns during a time of such unease and uncertainty.

It doesn’t seem as though the financial crisis is affecting the financial aid department of St. Lawrence University just yet because they are still waiting to hear back from the federal government and the FAFSA  (FAFSA-Free Application for Student Aid, 2010, 3) about how much money they will receive to distribute as student aid.

The Financial Aid department does know, however, that there will be a 3.7 percent increase in tuition for the 2010-2011 academic year at St. Lawrence. According to Cowdrey, this is the lowest increase in tuition in the past five or six years, with a five percent increase last year and a five point five increase before that.  This is one of the actions being taken to ease the financial burden for students at St. Lawrence. Cowdrey was also proud of the fact that between the fall and spring semesters of 2009 and 2010, St. Lawrence recorded the “best-ever” retention rate with only sixteen students lost.  In a time of financial crisis, it is impressive to have such a great retention rate, when money is tight for nearly everyone. All of these students left for various reasons; however the main reason was not due to financial situations. Cowdrey informed us of a “special circumstances” budget that is used for changes in student’s financial situations. For example, if a parent of a student lost his or her job and could no longer pay all of tuition, the St. Lawrence University Financial Aid Office would be able to work with the family and by using professional judgment, would help out the student and family in whatever way possible to keep the student at St. Lawrence. Even though the financial situation is tight, St. Lawrence seems to be doing everything they can to make sure students are able to receive an education at an affordable price for their families.

A main concern of the Recession Response and Planning Task Group is to preserve the “St. Lawrence experience” for students, meaning that cuts will not affect student life and what makes St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence.  The financial aid department comes into play here. Cowdrey and Farmer were both very concerned with enrollment. “We don’t want to cut financial aid so that enrollment goes down, keeping people here is very important to us.” said Cowdrey when asked to comment on suspected changes in financial aid due to cuts made by St. Lawrence University.

As a private institution focused on the success of its students, St. Lawrence University offers many types of scholarships based upon merit. These scholarships include University Scholars, Sesquicentennial Scholars, Augsbury/North Country Scholars, Canadian Merit Scholars, Vilas Scholars and Presidential Diversity Scholars. Because so many scholarships are offered by the university, it gives many students the chance to receive aid. These scholarships do not come without certain requirements, however, as scholarly students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in order to keep their scholarships (St. Lawrence University Financial Aid Office, 2009, 4). “Scholarships are given to the strongest students that are best matched to SLU; they are not necessarily based upon need,” Cowdrey answered when asked to speak about the division of scholarships. She made it clear that scholarships are based upon merit and rewards, and that aid was only taken into account after scholarships were distributed.

The things that Cowdrey and Farmer seemed to be uncertain about were the things out of their control, like federal money that is distributed for grants and loans. According to Farmer, St. Lawrence University has to ask the federal government for Federal Grant money every academic year. She said that they always ask for more than they need, in the hopes that they will get as much as they can to aid students. She used the Federal Pell Grant as an example of a useful tool, and explained it as an “endless pool of money for students who qualify,” so if students are financially eligible for it, they get it, no ifs ands or buts. She was concerned however about the SEOG, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (Student Aid on the Web, 2010, 2). She said that it was down from last year, because more schools are asking for more money. This is a concern because at a time when more students are going to need aid, they have less money to work with to help those students.

Despite their concerns, Cowdrey and Farmer remain fairly positive. Their overall message was this, “Over eighty percent of students at St. Lawrence University rely on financial aid and scholarships, and the financial situation has tightened things. We can’t dramatically change financial aid and scholarships because we rely on the past to predict what is going to happen in the future.” said Cowdrey. In former St. Lawrence University president Dan Sullivan’s Future of Independent Higher Education speech, he pats St. Lawrence on the back for diversifying the student body with students from all different ranges of family incomes, with twenty percent of SLU students coming from the bottom quartile of family incomes nationally. This statistic is double the percentages wealthy institutions like the Ivy’s have, as they have not made the commitment to diversify with students of all family incomes. With the optimistic attitudes of Cowdrey and Farmer and the reassurance of Dan Sullivan, students can rest assured that the Financial Aid Office of St. Lawrence University is on the students’ side. Despite recent changes in the financial crisis, St. Lawrence University is doing all in its power to keep diversifying the student body and  to make sure that students’ education is not negatively impacted by changes in financial aid.

The Student Experience (Experiencing Difficulty)

Almost everyone we’ve talked to on campus has stressed the importance of not making cuts that will affect the student experience. However, with all of the changes being made, the student experience will inevitably be affected.  President Fox has been adamant that SLU will not suffer a “death by a thousand cuts, but no cuts–no band-aids required,” though he can’t guarantee anything yet. Already this semester we have seen a decrease in the hours of operation at Dana and the Pub.  This may not seem like it would have a large impact on SLU students, but oftentimes sports practices have run too late for the athletes to eat at Dana, which not only has healthier options than the Pub, but is also cheaper.  Also, many of these athletes have the 21 Meal Plan option, which dictates that they eat at Dana; with decreased hours at Dana, they are forced to use their CWA at the Pub, and forfeit their meals at Dana, so they are essentially double-paying for their dinners.  Also, on a similar note, the retraction of late-night Pub hours on the weekends has many students upset.  The option was very popular with a large number of students, and many have expressed their feeling that something has been taken away from them.   Many fear more cuts will come.

According to the RRPTG, along with revising many other things in the spring, a major part of managing the budget will be finding out how to reduce programs.  Lately, many red flags having shot up for the student body surrounding the cut backs that will affect the “St. Lawrence experience” for students.  For instance, recent developments have revealed potential drastic changes like eliminating mentors in the First Year Program (FYP), and eliminating monetary compensation for faculty offering Senior Year Experiences, which will result in fewer SYEs. Both of these programs are vital components of the student experience.  As of yet, no specifics have been released as to exactly which components of these and other programs will be in jeopardy, but in spite of President Fox’s claim, any cut to on campus programs will alter the student experience, and that has many of us worried.

Conclusion

As the economy works its way to climb back to a steady equilibrium and work out issues that have been caused from the recent recession, St. Lawrence University’s administrators seek to confront these challenges as effectively as possible without compromising their core mission of providing and promoting excellence in teaching, research and service (PTZeleza).  In order to confront these challenges, SLU is adjusting by cutting programs and staff, raising tuition and restructuring the overall budget.  Institutions across the nation are focused on maintaining character and applying creative problem solving to solve the issues created by the economic mess.  Unfortunately, members of the St. Lawrence community will be hurt in the process.  But, if there is any good news in the present fiscal crisis, it’s that, in the long haul, it will force universities like St. Lawrence to forge a new path for the university—one that addresses stubborn fiscal realities, but that also allows us to preserve and nurture our world class university system (University of California Newsroom).

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