We should be thankful. In an email sent to faculty and staff
on academy financial updates, Barbara Chase, Head of School,
announced that our endowment, once valued at $803.5 million
during its highest point in June 2007, has declined to its present
value of $641.8 million.
This decline may seem drastic. But, in comparison to our
peer schools, Andover is well-off. PA’s endowment investment
fell 15 percent, a pleasant suprise after the administration’s initial
estimates of a 22 percent decline last winter. Meanwhile, The
Phillipian reports the average endowment investment loss of our
peer schools to be 19.1 percent, according to the Association of
Business Officers of Private Schools. Most Ivy League schools
report endowment losses above 20 percent.
Chase emphasized the goals that have shaped the school’s
handling of this situation in the closing of her email. First and
foremost, PA hopes to maintain the “central aspects of the
educational program.” While we may struggle to adjust to these
economic challenges, the repercussions of budget cuts should
have a minimal effect on students.
The voluntary retirement plan, although the administration
will more accurately determine its success on October 15, has
been instrumental in avoiding big-scale layoffs. Andover has only
fired two staff members, both project managers in OPP.
Faculty members with administrative duties have taken
on larger teaching roles. John Rogers and Patricia Russell,
for example, both have worked as advisors to the school on
sustainability issues, but they have now relinquished some of
those reponsibilities to allocate more of their time back into the
classroom.
Our greatest reason for gratitude should concern our
Financial Aid Program. Most importantly, the school has been
able to maintain its need-blind program. Yes, the school has had
to make some sacrifices. Summer programs will receive less
financial aid, and annual Model UN trip to Washington D.C.
might be cancelled, as the school may not provide financial aid
for the trip.
But these resources have been shifted towards a more
important task, meeting family tuition needs. According to Jim
Ventre, Director of Financial Aid, the school is reassessing the
increasing financial aid needs of families on the margin line.
Ventre believes financial aid students prefer that the school add
more money towards these new tuition needs rather than towards
summer programs. Anecdotal evidence confirms his assertion
A $161.7 million loss still has a far-reaching effect on PA’s
operations, and we are already witnessing these changes. The
PA campus will never see a hardcopy Directory of the 2009-2010
school year. Faculty and staff begin the year with fewer full-time
equivalent employees. The school still needs to find $900,000 to
cut out of the budget, and these changes don’t appear to be ending
anytime soon.
Hopefully we can continue to weather the storm.