As discussions about college costs continue at Carleton and around the nation, the Voice sat down with President Steven Poskanzer to talk about Carleton’s budget.
How does Carleton manage to stay competitive when our top peers have larger endowments?
I don’t think prospective students and faculty members pick their schools on the basis of endowment. They look for a good school where they’ll fit in, feel at home, and achieve their academic goals. Carleton is distinctive in the dimensions that people care about when they choose a college.
Will we lose ground competitively if we don’t increase our endowment?
Despite our success, we should not be under any illusion that there is no connection between the level of resources and the level of long-term quality. The fact that Carleton is relatively underendowed compared to our peers makes us vulnerable. Right now we’re a little bit like a boxer who is fighting above his weight class. We can do that because we have a record of making smart choices and not chasing phantasmic notions of what we need to have. But in order to secure our strength for the decades to come, we will have to increase our endowment dollars per student, in accordance with the metrics in our strategic plan.
What factors do you consider in prioritizing Carleton’s budget?
It’s pretty straightforward: our overall priority in setting the budget is to invest in smart ways to build academic quality. There are several obvious ways to pursue this overarching goal. We can improve student quality and diversity by putting more money into financial aid—and thus enabling more of the very best students to enroll here. We can attract and retain talented faculty and staff members by offering competitive salaries and benefits. And, although this is less important than the first two, we can invest in the quality of the facilities that faculty members and students use. We are very careful and prudent about all of these things. Of course, constructing a smart budget means that you have to pay attention to the expense side of the ledger, too, by looking for ways to trim costs and be more efficient. We can’t simply raise Carleton’s tuition every time we identify something we want or need.
What are some of the hard calls you’ve had to make about spending?
We learned during our strategic planning process that we need to get used to living with constrained resources. Thus, if we want to grow or add new programs, we would have to do so by substitution rather than by accretion. That requires us to decide what to stop doing in order to make resources available for priority areas. For example, we sometimes shift faculty positions from one department to another when someone retires or we have a vacancy. We have to make decisions about where to reinvest instead of always doing the same thing.
What are the current budget priorities?
I’d list five things that top our agenda. First, increase need-based financial aid to ensure that we can enroll the talented and diverse classes we want. Second, keep tuition increases modest, which helps ensure that Carleton remains affordable to middle- and low-income students. Third, enhance life and career preparation for students. Fourth, ensure we’re providing competitive salaries and benefits for our wonderful faculty and staff. Fifth, defray the costs of the two most pressing investments we need to make in facilities: new interdisciplinary teaching and research spaces for the sciences, and an addition to the Weitz Center for Creativity to accommodate our growing needs for music performance and teaching space both in the curriculum and as part of Carleton’s vibrant cocurricular life. I regard the budget as a tool by which we implement the goals of our strategic plan (which you can find at go.carleton.edu/strategic). The budget expresses our goals and values, and it enables us to see those aspirations take physical (and sometimes actual concrete!) form. That said, the budget is only a means to our ultimate end: helping gifted students learn and grow under the guardianship of expert and caring teacher-scholars. That’s why Carleton exists.