College Operates at $1.9M Deficit in 2024, President Announces Budget Cuts

Olivia Silvey ’25

Editor-in-Chief

In November 2024, President Joanne Berger-Sweeney announced that the College operated at a $1.9M loss in Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), in an email sent to staff and faculty. Berger-Sweeney listed three elements of the coming plan to cut costs, which are as follows: “1) We will pause some new hires, some temporarily and others permanently; 2) We will cut non-personnel budgets and seek additional sources of revenue; 3) We will not change retirement contributions for employees.”

Berger-Sweeney credited the loss to the fact that “for the past several years, net tuition revenues (tuition minus financial aid) at Trinity have stagnated as fewer students matriculate and those who do require more financial aid.” According to the June 2024 financial statement, the College netted $79.5M for tuition revenues (not including room and board). In FY23, it was $77.5M; the lowest tuition revenues have been in the last five years is $75.4M in 2021. 

In FY24, the College gave out $8M more in tuition-based financial aid compared to 2023, a number that has consistently risen since before the pandemic, from $46M in 2019 to around $70M in 2024. President Berger-Sweeney stated that this was the “first budget gap since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic,” anticipating further multi-million dollar deficits in the coming years if the current operating budget is not adjusted. 

When asked where the deficit came from, Vice President of Finance and Operations Dan Hitchell clarified that the financial statements do not specifically identify the budget deficit. “You would need access to another layer of financial documents that we don’t share with the public to specifically identify the deficit,” Hitchell stated in an email to the Tripod. 

In the financial statement, while operating revenues amount to almost $10M more than expenses FY24, there is a difference between operating revenues and specifically what is used in the operating budget group. So, while total revenues may outweigh total expenses, typically the operating budget itself only includes line items like contributions or endowment income with donor restrictions, which mean that the funds are limited to what the donor wants them spent on.

Berger-Sweeney also noted the function of the endowment; while the College made money off endowment investments in FY24, only a small amount of the endowment returns are used in the actual operating budget. In her initial email, Berger-Sweeney clarified that “our endowment is a strategic asset, growing over time, to provide a steady, reliable income stream for sustainable financial support of operations that serve Trinity’s mission in perpetuity. Its purpose is not to serve as a stopgap for current overspending.” According to a breakdown from 2024, the endowment contributes around $35M towards the operating budget. Currently, Trinity’s endowment stands at around $791M, as of 2023. 

In order to cut costs, Berger-Sweeney said that she has “asked our senior managers to develop divisional budget cuts of 3 to 4 percent” and “division leaders will work with the management teams in their divisions to discuss proposed reductions” for this year and beyond. As stated previously, these cuts will focus on the three areas that Berger-Sweeney highlighted in her message: “1) We will pause some new hires, some temporarily and others permanently; 2) We will cut non-personnel budgets and seek additional sources of revenue; 3) We will not change retirement contributions for employees.”