Rodin reports on U. budget

University President Judith Rodin released her report on the budget for Fiscal Year 1999 to University Council this month, outlining Penn's academic budget expenditures from the past year. The University spent a total of $2.871 billion dollars in Fiscal Year 1999, of which $1.284 billion was used in the academic budget, divided among Penn's 12 undergraduate and graduate schools, administrative offices and facilities services. The total operating budget increased by about 4.6 percent from last year's $2.745 billion budget. The academic budget accounts for 45 percent of the total operating budget. The other $1.6 billion is allocated to the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson noted that while tuition and fees remain the largest source of revenue for the academic budget -- representing 34 percent of the funding -- outside research grants, from sources such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, now account for 30 percent of the total. Engebretson said research funding has increased dramatically over the past few years. Penn received $414 million in outside research funding for Fiscal Year 1998, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Bernard Lentz, the director of Penn's Institute of Research and Analysis, said that he expects to see another research increase "in the excess of 10 percent" for FY99. While the growth in research funding increases the overall budget, the money only goes toward designated research projects. It does not support various financial needs, including capital planning or financial aid, which are funded primarily by tuition and fees, and more minimally by endowment and individual gift money. Penn draws 7 percent of the budget from its $3.02 billion endowment, which stands as the 12th largest in the nation. But although the endowment appears to be large, Rodin noted that the endowment per student figure needs improvement. As of last June, Penn had $155,941 per student in its endowment, while Princeton University recorded a significantly higher $875,321 per student endowment figure. The small per capita figure necessitates that Penn lags behind its peer institutions in contributing endowment money to financial aid. Engebretson said that limited tuition funding makes gifts and grants important contributors to capital planning and campus projects. Gifts account for 5 percent of the budget. "We definitely have good inclination to get as many gifts and grants as possible," Engebretson said. The bulk of the budget expenditures -- 71 percent -- is divided between the individual schools, with the Medical School receiving 34 percent of that amount; the School of Arts and Sciences 22 percent; the Wharton School 16 percent and the School of Engineering and Applied Science 6 percent of the available money. The University's other schools receive lesser amounts of the budget. Engebretson said the budget breakdown for the next fiscal year will likely look similar. "You'll hardly see any differences," she said.

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