Brown is facing a structural budget deficit driven by the University's efforts to reposition as a leading research institution rather than a liberal arts college model, administrators explained at Tuesday’s faculty meeting.
Factors including a flattening in undergraduate tuition rates and faculty pressure for increased compensation are also major reasons for this deficit, according to University Provost Francis Doyle. Doyle also shared plans to address the deficit, which includes expanding Brown’s graduate programs.
“It has a lot to do with this long-term shift in Brown’s academic and financial model, from being more of a college to being more of a university,” President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 said at the meeting.
She argued that while the University’s academic focus is aligned with other research university peers, its financial model is not.
“We are still incredibly dependent on undergraduate tuition, net of financial aid, to support our operations,” Paxson said.
But Brown is reaching its capacity of undergraduate students on campus, Doyle said. This means the University won’t have as much money to work with.
“What’s different between Brown and our peers is their development of master’s and professional programs,” Paxson said. “I think it’s the shift that we’re in the middle of. It’s causing a lot of pressure and tension on our budget.”
The University may look to double the population of graduate students over the next several years, Doyle said in an interview with The Herald. He added that an increase in graduate students would create a “virtuous cycle” in which new graduate students will lead to more programs that can then attract more students.
The process of expanding graduate programs includes both bringing more students into successful programs and creating new ones that are “responsive to needs that we detect that are out there in the community of learners,” Doyle added.
But, Paxson said this expansion won’t impact Brown’s commitment to undergraduate education.
“Compared to our aspirational peers, our ratio of graduate students to undergraduates is still incredibly low,” she said at the meeting. “We can go a long way before becoming graduate student top-heavy.”
Paxson also noted that the macroeconomic environment has exacerbated the University’s structural deficit.
“Inflation has had a dramatic impact on the cost of our graduate students, students and postdocs. Salaries and wages are going up really quickly, and that’s putting pressure on the budget,” she said.
Doyle offered three primary solutions to the structural deficit: to continue supporting research investments, to invest in revenue diversification and growth through venues such as master’s programs and Brown University Health and to manage expense growth, such as the widening of financial aid.
Doyle estimated that resolving the budget deficit would take a few years, especially considering the time it takes to establish new graduate programs.
“That’s what it’s going to take to completely get things back on track, but I believe we’re going to start moving the needle right away” to address the deficit, he said.
“This is not a crisis. This is a crossroads,” Paxson told faculty. “It’s an opportunity to align what we do with who we want to be.”
Clarification: The language of the first paragraph of this story has been updated to note that Brown's increasing research focus has been a broad University effort.
Cate Latimer is a senior staff writer covering faculty and higher education. She is from Portland, OR, and studies English and Urban Studies. In her free time, you can find her playing ultimate frisbee or rewatching episodes of Parks and Rec.
