With the economy taking a seemingly endless roller coaster ride, the university is tightening its grip on the controls, one of which includes the endowment.

“What we’re looking at for next year is – because we’re very close to the corpus of the endowment – trying not to take money out of that because it depletes the nest egg,” Susan Lindahl, chief communications and strategic planning officer, said.

The corpus of the endowment refers to the principal amount of donations given to Baker to invest in stocks and bonds and collect interest.

The university spends a little more than $1 million in interest from the endowment for operating expenses each year, but Baker doesn’t want to spend those funds in the 2009-2010 budget.

Rather, it’s being put back into the corpus to build revenue for the future.

“What we’re trying to do is build the budget around not getting that income, and that creates about a $1 million deficit because that’s typically what would come back into the budget over a year,” Lindahl said.

Lyn Lakin, vice president of university advancement, said the endowment has fallen 25 to 30 percent, although it fluctuates daily, which is why the university doesn’t want to budget for the funds.

“It just goes up and down so much it’s hard to make a decision any one day,” Lakin said.

The university does not want to invade the corpus because it provides long-term funds for Baker.

“We’ve been here 150 years,” Lindahl said. “We want that money to continue to be there to fund other initiatives over the years rather than just spending it down, because then it decreases what’s available for that next generation of students.”

Lindahl said this year’s  deficit has grown somewhat from the projected $1.6 million due to unexpected expenses such as updating the depreciation model, fixing Harter Union’s roof, which carries a $100,000 price tag, and other expenditures.

Rand Ziegler, vice president and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, oversees the CAS academic and athletic budgets and helps faculty chairs with their individual budgets.

Ziegler said departmental budgets’ starting points for the 2009-2010 academic year will pick up where they leave off for 2008-2009, although it hasn’t been finalized, and most likely continue to cut spending.

So department chairs are prepared to be given a number and forced to prioritize needs versus wants, whereas before they’ve been able to make wish lists and then cut back, Ziegler said.

“Once they’re given that number, then they have to be creative and divvy it up how they see fit,” he said.

Ziegler said the university isn’t broke by any means, as it’s estimated to spend $38 million this year even after cuts and layoffs, adding that university officials are continuing to cut items that effect faculty and staff rather than students.

Lindahl said the university is continuing to make cuts and planning an austere budget to position Baker for not only next year, but three to five years down the road.

"(Next year's budget) certainly won't have everything that we would like to have in it, but we know that we will have to live within those means to be able to balance the budget," she said.<br/>