College Faces $15 Million Deficit, Will Continue Reduced Contributions to Staff Retirement Accounts
(Photo Allyson Frantz/The Gettysburgian)
By Anna Cincotta, Editor-in-Chief
The college faces a $15 million gap between anticipated revenues and current expenses for the upcoming fiscal year and will compensate by continuing to halve its contributions to staff retirement accounts. The Board of Trustees expressed support for dipping into the $320 million endowment as the college continues to reel from the financial pressures caused by the pandemic.
President Bob Iuliano announced the dire situation, which will force Gettysburg to operate at a level of spending last seen in 2013, during a faculty meeting on March 4 that was closed to a student representative from The Gettysburgian who typically attends to observe and report on the faculty’s activities. The Gettysburgian learned of the financial briefing from multiple staff members present at the meeting, and College spokesperson Jamie Yates confirmed the accuracy of the figures and measures reported in this article when presented with them.
The financial update comes on the heels of a tumultuous fiscal year for the college in which it was forced to offer refunds to students in both the spring and fall semesters of 2020, issue a $100 COVID-19 testing credit to students sent home during the college’s de-densification process in September, and confronted with various expenses associated with the decision to return to in-person instruction during the pandemic—including contracting with Mobile Health to conduct thousands of COVID-19 tests for students, faculty, and staff each week.
“We’ve said from the beginning that we would spend the resources necessary to protect our students and our community,” said Yates. “The deficit is in part reflective of that commitment.”
Last spring, the college lost $7 million by refunding half of the semester’s room and board charges when it sent home all students. By this fall, that gulf reached $11 million after sending home most students for a second consecutive semester.
Although the college will be forced to operate on a leaner budget entering the 2021-22 academic year, Yates promised that the student experience would not suffer, citing a forthcoming strategic plan as evidence of the college’s commitment to providing “a dynamic and engaging education.”
“Gettysburg College is fully invested in providing the very best opportunities for our students to learn and to grow, and so many have worked to reimagine what we do and how we do it amid the pandemic,” added Yates.
The reporting for this story is ongoing.
