Dear Members of the Boston University Community,<\/p>\n
It was good to see so many of you at the recent Faculty Assembly and Town Hall meetings. We covered a lot of ground, including an important update from Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer Nicole Tirella and me on Boston University\u2019s financial status. I write to share that information for those who were unable to attend those meetings and address questions about our budget outlook.<\/p>\n
To start, Boston University is in a strong financial position. Over the past year, our community has taken important steps to stabilize the University\u2019s budget amid recent pressing challenges. We have ensured that the University\u2019s liquidity is sound, increased our net assets, reaffirmed Boston University\u2019s strong credit ratings, and mitigated a $35 million budget shortfall through a series of targeted budget reductions earlier this fall.<\/p>\n
While this stability is good news, I recognize that getting here has not been easy. I\u2019m grateful to everyone in our community for their contributions and resilience in the face of a demanding environment for higher education. Our faculty continue to thrive in a changing research-funding landscape. Our staff members are finding innovative ways to push the University forward. Our students continue to impact our campuses and communities around the world.<\/p>\n
Still, we cannot ignore the ongoing and significant financial headwinds facing colleges and universities across the country, including ours.<\/p>\n
Financial challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n Across higher education, enrollment patterns are becoming less predictable, technology and demographics are changing quickly, and we continue to experience uncertainty in research funding, challenges for our international community, changes in student aid programs, and a loss of public trust in the higher education mission. These factors make for turbulence now and for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Despite our strong position, Boston University is at risk of a structural deficit. Growth in compensation, benefits, and financial aid is outpacing traditional revenue sources, while graduate enrollment\u2014particularly among international scholars\u2014continues to soften. These signals are troubling for a tuition-dependent university such as ours and create potential financial pressure that could require us to adopt budgetary contingency plans in the near term.<\/p>\n At the same time, we face a growing financial burden from chronic underinvestment in our physical infrastructure and technology systems. To be a competitive 21st-century university, it\u2019s essential that we provide modern, comfortable spaces for our students, faculty, and staff to live, learn, and work\u2014and that we have updated, efficient technology systems to support our daily operations. Deferred maintenance in these areas results in time-consuming and costly processes to update our physical and digital infrastructure; nevertheless, we must undertake these efforts.<\/p>\n Taken together, we confront a budgetary trend that is straining our operations and widening the gap between revenues and costs. While Boston University is in a good position now, the trend lines point to a bleaker future if we do not change course.<\/p>\n I lay all of this out to impress upon our community, as I have before, that the challenges are not short-term. Therefore, we must change the way we operate. Maintaining Boston University\u2019s strong position requires us to reshape our University to meet the current moment and prepare for an unpredictable future.<\/p>\n As outlined in Boston University\u2019s strategic framework, Charting Our Future, impacting the world through excellence in research, teaching, learning, creative expression, and clinical care is our top priority. To achieve our aims, we must continue to make strategic investments. We cannot work strategically without financial planning, forecasting, and modeling. These urgent challenges require clearer insight into our current financial status and future financial needs.<\/p>\n Budget transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n Having a robust budgeting system is critical for our institution\u2019s success. These past two years demonstrate that our long-standing budgeting practices are neither nimble nor resilient. That\u2019s why one of the first transformational projects we are undertaking is overhauling our budgeting system.<\/p>\n Last year, many of you participated in a budget assessment and suggested areas for improvement. That assessment is now complete, and from it we have learned what we need to do to strengthen the budget process, provide transparency on resources and how they are allocated, and understand and use data to drive strategic decision-making. We will adopt best practices for budgeting and align with industry standards, requiring some of us to gain new skills and shed some current and localized ways of working.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll soon begin the next phase of this budget transformation initiative: implementation. Nicole Tirella has already begun meeting with groups across the University to share details about this significant change, and more information will follow.<\/p>\n You can learn more about this budget transformation initiative in a Q&A with Nicole in BU Today<\/a> and stay up to date on its progress on the CFO website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The landscape for higher education presents us with many challenges. But it also presents opportunities for us to improve, adapt, and innovate. We will need to be disciplined and thoughtful about our resources as we chart our path forward, and I am encouraged by the great progress we\u2019re already making. Ultimately, we are building a stronger Boston University not just for today and tomorrow but for future generations.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Melissa Gilliam<\/p>\n President<\/p>\n *4\/2\/26 This message was sent to faculty and staff.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Members of the Boston University Community, It was good to see so many of you at the recent Faculty Assembly and Town Hall meetings. We covered a lot of ground, including an important update from Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer Nicole Tirella and me on Boston University\u2019s financial status. 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