【中美创新时报2024 年 10 月 11 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）现在，在高等教育普遍陷入财务困境、特别是布兰迪斯大学入学人数下降的背景下，这座位于马萨诸塞州沃尔瑟姆的大学发现自己陷入了日益严重的预算紧缩之中，并试图抵御一些人担心的可能长期衰退的开始。《波士顿环球报》记者麦克·达米亚诺（Mike Damiano）对此作了下述详细报道。
布兰迪斯大学在高等教育界独树一帜，它结合了亲密的文科氛围和强大的研究运作，取得了科学突破并获得诺贝尔奖。
但几十年来对布兰迪斯大学有利的因素也可能对它不利：其独特的特点长期以来迫使学校处于预算边缘，依靠几千名学生的学费和中等规模的捐赠与规模是其几倍的机构竞争。
现在，在高等教育普遍陷入财务困境、特别是布兰迪斯大学入学人数下降的背景下，这座位于马萨诸塞州沃尔瑟姆的大学发现自己陷入了日益严重的预算紧缩之中，并试图抵御一些人担心的可能长期衰退的开始。
“与其使命相比，其财政状况非常紧张，”大学理事会协会的高等教育财务和治理专家拉里·拉德说。
研究生入学人数急剧下降，该校的全国排名（有助于吸引全额支付学费的国际学生）急剧下降，截至本学期，本科生入学人数也出现下滑。
财务压力导致夏季大规模裁员、招聘冻结和开支削减、新科学设施计划暂停、捐赠基金异常大规模提取以补贴运营，以及上个学年末出现十年来首次预算赤字和现金损失。
学生和教职员工的士气受到了打击。上个月，学生报纸刊登了一篇关于财务困境的社论，标题是“布兰迪斯，我们太丢脸了”。随后，9 月 25 日，在一次教师不信任投票之后，校长罗纳德·利博维茨 (Ronald Liebowitz) 辞职，该投票除其他投诉外还提到了学校的财务困境，校长辞职于 11 月 1 日生效。
“我怀着复杂的心情做出这一决定，因为这是一所特殊的学校，”他在一份声明中说道。
财务挑战并非布兰迪斯独有。全国各地的学校都在应对入学人数下降、费用膨胀以及通过新宿舍、自助餐厅和其他昂贵设施吸引学生的激烈竞争。许多学校现在面临财务压力，一些小型文理学院已经关闭。
像布兰迪斯这样的精英大学不太容易受到高等教育普遍低迷的影响。但布兰迪斯是独一无二的。布兰迪斯大学由美国犹太社区于 1948 年创立，旨在为犹太人和其他在高等教育中遭受歧视的群体提供服务。尽管布兰迪斯大学规模相对较小，但它是一所重要的研究机构，自 2003 年以来，已有四名教职员工或校友获得诺贝尔奖。
但布兰迪斯大学成立时间较短、规模较小，且专注于研究，因此存在一些弱点：它不像常春藤盟校那样拥有几代校友捐助者。与许多其他主要研究机构不同，布兰迪斯大学的学生人数不足 5,500 人，不像其他学校那样有数万名自费学生来分担费用。
“我们都知道，高等教育存在阻力。布兰迪斯大学尤其存在阻力，”利博维茨在四月份表示。
在过去的学年里，这些阻力尤其大。
在《环球报》 5 月份的一份机密报告中，首席财务官塞缪尔·所罗门 (Samuel Solomon) 表示，“业绩不佳的最大原因”是研究生学费收入下降，自 2019 年以来下降了 46%。
本科生入学率是收入的一个更大来源，一直很稳定——直到秋季。新一年级的学生人数比年度目标 900 名少了约 100 名。这引起了布兰迪斯大学领导层的担忧，他们担心本科生的收入也可能减少。
“问题在于，每年都有一门课程的缺口，如果我们继续缺课，这个数字就会增加，”布兰迪斯大学一位高级管理人员说，由于未获授权发言，他要求匿名。
缺口发生在一个学年之后，当时利博维茨和布兰迪斯大学董事会宣传该校是犹太学生的避难所，他们担心以色列-哈马斯战争后校园反犹太主义。董事会支持利博维茨，因为他表达了亲以色列的立场，并对他认为是反犹太主义的亲巴勒斯坦活动分子采取强硬立场。
布兰迪斯大学英语教授乌尔卡·安贾里亚 (Ulka Anjaria) 表示，由于人们认为学生对就读布兰迪斯大学的兴趣不如以前，教师的士气受到了打击。该校在《美国新闻与世界报道》的排名从 2019 年的最高位第 35 位下降到最新一期的第 63 位，这并没有起到什么帮助作用。部分下降是由于评分标准的变化造成的，该标准通常有利于大型公立大学，而不利于像布兰迪斯大学这样优先考虑小班教学的学校。
“排名并非没有问题。我们当然不会遵守排名，”安贾里亚说。但她表示，看到布兰迪斯大学认为是同行的大学，如东北大学和塔夫茨大学领先，这令人沮丧。排名较低可能会影响收入，因为会阻止学生入学。
布兰迪斯大学领导层表示，当前的财务困难是正常的起伏，并不代表下降。
在最近的班级人数超过 900 名学生的目标后，一年级班级人数减少。因此，布兰迪斯大学财务和行政执行副总裁斯图尔特·乌雷茨基说，总体而言，本科生人数短缺 40 名，即 1%。
他说，2024 财年的 800 万美元现金损失“主要归因于启动两座建筑的初步设计工作所产生的成本”。其中一个项目是科学设施，他说，该设施“暂时停止”，但“将重新启动”。另一个是计划中的 650 个床位的宿舍。
预算赤字的计算方式不同，在总预算超过 4 亿美元的情况下，赤字为 170 万美元。
“我们与许多营业利润率相对较低非营利机构类似，”乌雷茨基说。虽然 2024 财年（截至 6 月）的赤字“略有下降”，但“前九年略有上升”，他说。
但布兰迪斯大学的需求远远大于当前赤字所反映的。在内部，领导者得出结论，他们应该在工资、设施和维护上多花数千万美元，减少从捐赠中支出，以保持竞争力——但他们负担不起这样做。 “我们的财务问题严重得多，”这位有权查看学校财务状况的管理人员说。
尤雷茨基说：“我们财务上的任何不平衡……都表明我们是一个雄心勃勃的机构，充满了努力推进知识的教职员工和学生，我们必须做出负责任的选择，量入为出。”
2025 财年，该大学将支出其 12 亿美元捐赠基金价值的 7%。非营利组织通常计划每年支出不到其捐赠基金的 5%。尤雷茨基说，7% 的支出“处于可接受范围的高端，而不是超出范围”。
学生报纸《正义报》的编辑委员会表示，布兰迪斯大学的许多建筑可追溯到本世纪中叶，正在“摇摇欲坠”。董事会写道，紧急维修很常见。
尤雷茨基说，自 2016 年以来，布兰迪斯大学已将其资本预算增加了 50%。
即将卸任的校长利博维茨 (Liebowitz) 于 4 月表示，在布兰迪斯大学 76 年的历史中，“一切都重新投入到学术项目中，这是理所当然的……大学在投资和再投资该研究项目方面做得非常出色。但最终，这是以牺牲其他未进行的投资为代价的。所以你看看校园基础设施，我们没有这些便利设施。”
“这些是布兰迪斯大学面临的挑战：保持学术上的卓越，同时还要满足这一代人的所有其他愿望，”他说。
《环球报》的希拉里·伯恩斯 (Hilary Burns) 对本报告做出了贡献。
题图：布兰迪斯大学的全国排名急剧下降，这有助于它吸引支付全额学费的国际学生。Erin Clark/Globe Staff
附原英文报道：
Before president’s resignation, signs of financial trouble at Brandeis
By Mike Damiano Globe Staff,Updated October 11, 2024
Brandeis University’s national ranking, which helps it attract international students who pay full tuition, has dropped precipitously.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
WALTHAM — Brandeis University stands apart in the higher education world with its combination of an intimate, liberal arts feel and powerhouse research operation that produces scientific breakthroughs and wins Nobel Prizes.
But what worked for Brandeis for decades can also work against it: Its unique character has long forced the school to live on the budgetary edge, stretching tuition from a few thousand students and a medium-sized endowment to compete with institutions that are several times its size.
Now, in the midst of widespread financial trouble in higher education and declining enrollment at Brandeis in particular, the Waltham school finds itself in an intensifying budget crunch and trying to fend off what some fear could be the beginning of a long-run decline.
“Its finances are just stretched very thin compared to its mission,” said Larry Ladd, a higher education finance and governance expert with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
Graduate student enrollment has nose-dived, the university’s national ranking, which helps it attract international students who pay full tuition, has dropped precipitously, and, as of this semester, undergraduate enrollment has slipped.
The financial pressure led to a mass layoff in the summer, hiring freezes and spending cuts, a halt in plans for a new science facility, an unusually large drawdown from the endowment to subsidize operations, and, for the first time in a decade, a budget deficit and a cash loss at the end of the past academic year.
Morale among students and faculty has taken a hit. “Brandeis, we are so embarrassed” was the headline of an editorial in the student newspaper last month about the financial struggles. Then, on Sept. 25, following a faculty no-confidence vote that cited, among other complaints, the school’s financial woes, president Ronald Liebowitz resigned effective Nov. 1.
“I have done so with mixed emotions because this is an exceptional institution,” he said in a statement.
The financial challenges are not unique to Brandeis. Schools across the country are contending with declining enrollment, ballooning expenses, and frenzied competition to attract students with new dormitories, cafeterias, and other costly amenities. Many are now financially stressed and some small liberal arts colleges have closed.
Selective universities, such as Brandeis, have been less susceptible to the wider malaise in higher education. But Brandeis is singular. It was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community to serve Jews and other groups who faced discrimination in higher education. And although it is relatively small, Brandeis is a major research institution, where four faculty or alumni have won a Nobel Prize since 2003.
But its younger age, size, and research focus make it vulnerable: It does not have generations of alumni donors like Ivy League schools. Unlike many other major research institutions, it has fewer than 5,500 students, not the tens of thousands of tuition-paying students other schools can rely on to defray costs.
“We all know we have higher education headwinds. We have particular headwinds at Brandeis,” Liebowitz said in April.
Those headwinds grew especially stiff during the past academic year.
In a confidential presentation in May seen by the Globe, chief financial officer Samuel Solomon said the “[b]iggest driver of underperformance” was a decline in tuition revenue from graduate students, down 46 percent since 2019.
Undergraduate enrollment, which is a much bigger source of revenue, had been stable — until the fall. The new first-year class came in about 100 students short of the annual target of 900. That has raised concerns among Brandeis leaders that undergraduate revenue could erode, as well.
“The problem is that’s a shortfall from one class that carries over each year, and if we continue to have class shortfalls that number grows,” said a senior Brandeis administrator, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.
The shortfall occurred after an academic year when Liebowitz and Brandeis’s board advertised the school as a refuge for Jewish students concerned about campus antisemitism in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. The board backed Liebowitz as he voiced a pro-Israel stance and took a hard line on elements of pro-Palestinian activism he saw as antisemitic.
Ulka Anjaria, a Brandeis English professor, said faculty morale has taken a hit because of a perception that students are less interested in attending Brandeis than they once were. The school’s drop in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, from a peak of 35th in 2019 to 63rd in the most recent edition, hasn’t helped. Part of the dip was caused by a change in the scoring rubric that generally helped large, public universities and hurt schools like Brandeis that prioritize small class sizes.
“The rankings are not unproblematic. We certainly don’t abide by them,” Anjaria said. But it has been dispiriting, she said, to see universities that Brandeis considers its peers, such as Northeastern and Tufts, pull ahead. And a lower ranking can take a toll on revenue by dissuading students from attending.
Brandeis leaders say the current financial difficulties are part of a normal ebb-and-flow and not indicative of a decline.
The smaller first-year class comes after recent classes exceeded the 900-student target. So, overall, the undergraduate student body is 40 students short, or 1 percent, said Stewart Uretsky, Brandeis’s executive vice president of finance and administration.
The cash loss of $8 million for the 2024 fiscal year, he said, was “largely attributable to costs associated with starting the preliminary design work on two buildings.” One of those projects was the science facility, which is “temporarily paused” but “will restart,” he said. The other is a planned 650-bed dormitory.
The budget deficit, which is calculated differently, was $1.7 million on a total budget of more than $400 million.
“We are similar to many nonprofit institutions that generate a relatively narrow operating margin,” Uretsky said. Although it was “slightly negative” for the 2024 fiscal year, which ended in June, “it had been slightly positive for the nine prior years,” he said.
But Brandeis’s needs are much greater than what the current deficit reflects. Internally, leaders have concluded they should spend tens of millions more on salaries, facilities, and maintenance, and draw less from its endowment, just to remain competitive — but cannot afford to do so. “Our financial problems are an order of magnitude worse,” said the administrator, who has access to the school’s financials.
Uretsky said, “Any imbalance in our finances . . . indicates we are an ambitious institution filled with faculty, staff, and students who strive to advance knowledge, and we must make responsible choices to operate within our means.”
For the 2025 fiscal year, the university is spending 7 percent of the value of its $1.2 billion endowment. Nonprofits generally aim to spend less than 5 percent of their endowment per year. Uretsky said the 7 percent draw is “on the high end of an acceptable range, not outside of it.”
The editorial board of The Justice, the student newspaper, has said that Brandeis’s buildings, many dating to the mid-century, are “crumbling.” Emergency repairs are common, the board wrote.
Since 2016, Brandeis has increased its capital budget 50 percent, Uretsky said.
Liebowitz, the outgoing president, said in April that throughout Brandeis’s 76 years, “everything was reinvested into the academic program, rightly so. . . . The university has done a remarkable job of investing and reinvesting in that research endeavor. But ultimately, eventually, that’s at the expense of what other investments weren’t [made]. So you look at the campus infrastructure and we don’t have the amenities.”
“Those are the challenges for Brandeis: to remain academically excellent and also competitive with all the other desires of this particular generation,” he said.
Hilary Burns of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
