Cornell Swaps
Cornell University, based in Ithaca, New York, posted a $31 million deficit, according to its annual report. It said more than $20 million of the shortfall came from paying for interest- rate swaps that it used in an attempt to lock in the borrowing cost for bonds that it later decided not to sell.
While Dartmouth posted the smallest gap of $1.8 million, the college in Hanover, New Hampshire, is “committed to a cultural shift toward rigorous financial discipline” based on expectations that “federal funding for education will diminish, endowment growth will slow, and the cost of tuition must stabilize,” Justin Anderson, a spokesman, said in an e-mail.
The Ivy League deficits were found in annual audited financial reports released in the past month, and reflect decreases in net assets from operating activities. Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, said while its financial statement shows a surplus, it used $5.5 million from reserves to balance the fiscal 2013 budget.
Temporary Situation
“It’s a temporary structural deficit,” Elizabeth Huidekoper, Brown’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “We will draw on reserves for a few years and if the federal research budget doesn’t come back we’ll have to make some real adjustments.”
Princeton University in New Jersey and Columbia University in New York posted increases in net assets from operating activities. The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia hasn’t released its fiscal 2013 results yet.