April 11, 2024
Dear Tufts faculty and staff,
We write today with updates on the university’s finances. We are providing this information because the central administration and the schools are engaged in detailed budget planning for the next several years, and we believe it is important for members of the community to have broad understanding of the fiscal environment in which budget decisions are being made.
While the university’s overall financial situation remains healthy, like many colleges and universities we are facing some near-term challenges. Specifically, we are confronting:
- a softening in the market for graduate education, especially residential master’s programs,
- a tightening labor market increasing competition for faculty and staff,
- an increase in benefit costs, particularly healthcare, and
- inflation in the cost of goods and services, most notably in construction services.
While these pressures are manageable with proper planning, they challenge us to perform a delicate balancing act. In a typical year, the university aims to achieve an operating margin of approximately two to three percent. This surplus allows us to:
- maintain reserves that help us manage through financial and operational challenges,
- be prepared in case of any unexpected adverse events,
- retain our strong credit rating, and
- reinvest in the university’s facilities and information technology infrastructure.
However, this is not a typical year, and we have decided to lower the university’s target margin to 1.5 percent next year. This will enable us to absorb increases to the cost of benefits and fund a merit pool, though the average increase will be about one percentage point lower than last year. To help the university achieve even this lower target, each school and administrative unit has been asked to take actions to increase revenue or decrease spending by three percent of their non-grant expenses.
Looking ahead, we will need to find areas of savings and revenue growth to maintain our ability to invest in priority areas, including (but certainly not limited to):
- increasing funding for undergraduate, professional, and graduate financial aid,
- addressing faculty and staff market pay equity issues,
- supporting recruitment and retention efforts,
- increasing support for our research infrastructure and for emerging faculty research opportunities, and
- growing our clinic operations.
To support these investments, we will need to think creatively and approach this as one university. We are committed to looking across the boundaries between schools and central divisions to find solutions that will help the university increase revenue and operate more efficiently while also supporting and growing our academic mission. We know you may have ideas on how to help us achieve this goal, and we encourage you to email your ideas to budgetsuggestions@tufts.edu.
Thank you for all that you do for the university and your continued dedication to its mission and values.
Sincerely,
Sunil Kumar
President
Caroline Attardo Genco
Provost and Senior Vice President
Michael W. Howard
Executive Vice President
Denise Bates
Dean, University College
Helen W. Boucher
Dean, School of Medicine
Chief Academic Officer, Tufts Medicine
Alastair Cribb
Dean, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Dayna L. Cunningham
Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life
Christina D. Economos
Dean, Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Scheri Fultineer
Dean, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
Kelly Sims Gallagher
Dean ad interim, The Fletcher School
James M. Glaser
Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
Nadeem Karimbux
Dean, School of Dental Medicine
Kyongbum Lee
Dean, School of Engineering