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2009-2010 Colorado College Tuition, Room and Board March 23, 2009
Every one of us is feeling the impact of today’s economic crunch. I wrote you earlier this school year to discuss what it means for Colorado College. I want to bring you up to date on our efforts to build a sustainable budget in the midst of bleak circumstances and considerable uncertainty about the future. And I want to share with you our plans regarding tuition and other costs for the coming year. I must begin, however, with this unshakeable affirmation: We will preserve and seek to enhance the unique intellectual adventure that defines Colorado College. Even as we cut and trim, sometimes in deep and difficult ways, we will focus on the quality of our student experience inside the classroom and beyond. We deliberately went forward with our search for outstanding new faculty to fill positions in six departments. We are excited by our success—all six of our first choices agreed to join us next fall. Three are women, three men. Two bring their international heritages to our campus and two are American ethnic minorities. Each brings demonstrated intellect and passion about teaching. Dean Ashley will be reporting more about them and their backgrounds on our website shortly. We are maintaining our small classes and our rich offering of field blocks. We continue to nurture study abroad experiences. And we will seek in our decisions about co-curricular activities to maintain and strengthen the quality of student experiences. While we have put most new initiatives on the back burner, we are moving forward on one important front. After nearly two years of careful study, I have signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment so that CC will join nearly 200 colleges and universities that have vowed to reduce their carbon footprint to zero by a date certain (for us, 2020). Two aspects of this move are significant. First, we have already completed the work to put us two years down the road on our commitment, well ahead of most of our peers. Second, we have begun to make modest current year investments that will yield us annual savings on our operating budget. Thus, this initiative draws together CC’s strong commitment to environmental sustainability with our goal of financial sustainability. We have already begun taking steps to reduce our projected spending by at least $8 million; ultimately we will identify what we need to do save as much as $12 million in our operating budget. These savings are necessary for three reasons: we know our endowment payout will be significantly lower; we expect our annual giving to decline by a modest amount; and we see a growing need for financial aid for our students. With respect to our endowment, we have outperformed the market for the past year—but we still have experienced a substantial decrease in the endowment value, which declined 22% for the calendar year ending December 31, 2008, and is down slightly more from our high in September 2007. Consequently, we project reduced payouts for the next three or four years. Our annual giving through December stayed strong. We are deeply grateful for loyal donors (including many parents) who have provided that critical dependable support. While the number of donors was down, the gifts themselves were up a bit to offset the decline. Still, we believe 2009 will be a more difficult year for our donors, and so we are cautious in our expectations for this and the next couple of years. We are strongly committed to meeting the financial needs of our students. And we know that the financial circumstances of some CC families have changed, sometimes dramatically. We want our “sustainable budget” to provide a sustainable education for students. When we originally developed our 2009-10 budget, we had projected a 5.25 percent increase in tuition. We have tossed out that projection in the face of the current economic situation. Tuition at CC will increase by 4 percent for the coming year (our lowest increase in over 30 years). Room and board will rise by 3.5 percent. (Students who received financial aid last year will be notified in Block 8 about next year’s aid package.) The mission of Colorado College is “to provide the finest liberal arts education in the country.” Our collective dedication to that mission underpins these and other difficult decisions and, I believe, will ensure that a CC education retains its value indefinitely. Regards, Richard F. Celeste |