Committees

Campus Budget Committee – A group of staff and faculty responsible for making recommendations about the college’s financial decisions to the president.

Compensation Committee – A group of faculty and staff responsible for making recommendations about compensation (salary and benefits) to the Campus Budget Committee.

Board of Trustees – This is the directing body of the college; the group which makes final decisions and takes responsibility for the financial and other obligations of the college. This is required by the law that regulates federally recognized nonprofit organizations.

Concepts

Revenues – Total income received by the college, usually in the form of comprehensive fees (tuition, room/board fees, etc.), ancillary services (e.g. museum or sporting event admission), gifts, and investment income (e.g. endowment payouts).

Comprehensive fee – The full price charged to attend the college, including tuition, room/board, and activity fees.

Discount rate – The share of the tuition fee that an average student does not pay, because of gifts to the college and endowment payouts that discount the price of education for every student.

Expenditures – Total payments made by the college to perform its functions, including employee compensation, operating expenses (e.g. office supplies), debt service, utilities, repair and maintenance.

Compensation – Payments made by the college for the direct benefit of employees, including salaries and benefits (health insurance subsidization, retirement benefits, tuition remission, etc.). This constitutes the primary expenditure for any higher-education organization.

Nonprofit status – Federal financial guidelines that require us to balance revenues with expenditures on an annual basis, financing any shortfall with debt and saving any excess by re-investing in the mission of the nonprofit.

Endowment – Funds managed on behalf of the college which often have contractual restrictions on use as required by donors (e.g. financial aid, particular programs).

Quasi-endowment – Also known as “board-directed” or “board-designated” endowments, these are funds managed on behalf of the college that have no donor restrictions but have been set aside by the Board of Trustees, often for a particular purpose (e.g. a construction project, financial aid).

Endowment payout – The endowment has a rate of return that the college may use without reducing the endowment itself. While those annual returns are determined by market forces, our Board of Trustees follows a policy to smooth the payouts over time by using a 3-year average value of the endowment at an assumed (average) rate of return, so that the college’s operations are not subject to volatile fluctuations.

Debt – Funds owed by the college to lenders, usually in the form of bonds or commercial loans.

Debt service – Payments made by the college to maintain the debt, including interest payments and loan renewal fees.