Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 71 | Thursday, September 24, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Endowment losses weigh on budget
A w w, sh u c ks
By Sydney Ember Senior Staf f Writer
By Brigitta Greene Senior Staff Writer
The University plans to reduce its annual draw on the endowment by 20 percent next year, Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, said at the first Brown University Community Council meeting of the semester yesterday. As it starts the budget-planning process for the fiscal year beginning in July 2010, the administration remains on track to reduce an anticipated $30 million in spending. Between July 1 of last year and June 30 of this year, the endowment lost $740 million — “a huge blow to Brown,” Huidekoper said. She added that the University is expecting zero net growth in its endowment this year. Payout from the endowment represents one of the University’s two main sources for revenue. The other, tuition, is expected to increase by only 1.4 percent this year, Huidekoper said. Such slow annual revenue increases will pose a significant challenge to overall University growth in the near future, she added. This past May, the University reduced projected revenue growth from 5 percent per year to 2 percent per year between July 2010 and June 2014. To keep pace with such projections, the University will have to contain its overall spending growth to 2 percent per year, reducing anticipated spending by a total of $95 million by June 2014. Of that $95 million, $35 million has already been eliminated through cuts to the current budget. The University will be looking to reduce an additional $30 million for the coming fiscal year, continued on page 3
Research dollars up for grabs, U. keys in
Kim Perley / Herald The annual corn shuck-off was held Wednesday on Wriston Quad.
Universities nationwide are in fierce competition this year to procure a share of scarce federal research funds, and Brown is taking aggressive steps to get its own piece of the pie and enhance its national profile as a top-tier institution. In the past two years, the University has taken assertive actions to bolster its appeal to national foundations and the federal government — including hiring a Washington-based political consulting firm, forming partnerships with other institutions and promoting its own multidisciplinar y research programs. And the measures appear to be working — the University announced Wednesday it had secured three new awards, including a $3 million National Science Foundation grant. Those successes bring Brown’s total share of federal stimulus money from the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to nearly $20 million. “The stimulus funding was, of course, a boost coming in,” said Vice President for Research Clyde Briant. “Research is expanding. There’s no question about that.” The latest awards include nearly $2 million in funding for two stateof-the-art instruments — a hightech mass spectrometer and a transmission electron microscope — and another $2 million for a new “CAVE,” a three-dimensional, automatic virtual environment. Briant said the University is also attempting to strengthen its image as a research institution by more vigorously developing graduate programs and promoting key departments that best represent innovative research such as Brown’s new Institute for Brain Science. Increased national research stature would not only benefit the University and its researchers, but continued on page 2
Hope High, with difficult past, has yet another new face By Emma Berry Staf f Writer
In 2005, the Rhode Island Department of Education took control of an underperforming high school and divided it into three separate “learning communities.” Now Hope High’s three communities have become two, leaving students to adapt to a school that feels “different.” As of this year, Hope Leadership School no longer exists, and its students and faculty have been merged into Hope Arts School and Hope Information Technol-
ogy School. maining two principals — Scott Under the previous “triune” Sutherland of Arts and Arthur Petstructure, each school had its rosinelli of IT — shared responown administrative team and its sibility for Leadership. Together, own floor. The system — one of a the two principals came up with number of changes mandated by a the idea to merge the schools, 2002 state intervention Christina O’Reilly, order — was widely a spokesperson for METRO credited with improvethe district, told The ments in student performance at Herald when the change was anHope. After the reorganization, nounced in April. reading scores nearly tripled, acO’Reilly added that the consolicording to a February Providence dation would primarily be at the Journal article. “top level” of administration and When Leadership Principal would not affect the number of stuWayne Montague retired during dents or faculty at the school. the 2008-2009 school year, the reJohn Day, acting president of
Hope’s Parent-Teacher Organization, said “budget concerns” prompted the change. Running two schools rather than three requires “at least one less principal, one less vice principal,” and potentially other personnel, he said. Hope High School administrators and district spokespeople could not be reached for an interview. “I’ve been in the school quite a bit, and I don’t really see any changes,” Day said. “From what I’ve heard, no courses were recontinued on page 5
Flu cases spreading quickly, BUCC hears 234 potential cases reported, Wheeler says; vaccines on their way By Brigitta Greene Senior Staf f Writer
inside
The Brown University Community Council began its first meeting of the year with a round of jovial introductions before turning to its downbeat agenda yesterday — hearing about the campus H1N1 influenza situation and the Rhode Island legislature’s proposed student tax bill and getting an update on the University’s finances (see stor y above left).
News.....1-4 Metro......5-6 Spor ts...7-8 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12
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Edward Wheeler, director of health ser vices, led off with the news that a total of 234 cases of influenza-like illness have been reported on campus as of Wednesday afternoon. Wheeler told The Herald just last Thursday that the number of reported cases was at 78 — indicating that the disease may be spreading quickly. Although H1N1 vaccines will not be available until late October, Wheeler said, the University will begin of fering seasonal flu vac-
cines to all members of the campus community today. Instead of the traditional clinics for students, Health Ser vices will set up a vaccination station in Josiah’s that will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Wheeler said the University hopes to more than double the average number of vaccinations this year — setting a goal of between 3,000 and 3,500 in an effort to contain what is expected to be a worsecontinued on page 3
Quinn Savit / Herald
President Ruth Simmons (left) and Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 (right) look on during yesterday’s meeting, held at Brown Hillel.
News, 3
Sports, 7
Opinions, 11
cybermaster Professor John Savage will advise the State Department on computer issues
home turf split The women’s volleyball team goes 2-1 at the Brown Invitational
forgive us our sins Michael Fitzpatrick ’12 says he and other atheists are sorry — for everything
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