NOTES FROM CT HALL
Covid Budget, Prison Education Initiative, Childcare
FAS Senate Proceedings 10/15/20
Matthew Jacobson called the meeting to order at 3:33pm. He opened by reading out a statement on the responsibility of educators during the current national crisis.
The Senate voted to approve the minutes for the FASS of September 17, 2020, followed by updates from working committees.
University Budget
The prime matter of the meeting was university budget amid the challenges of Covid. Chief Investment Officer David Swensen spoke of a dip in the endowment in the spring and of recovery. The Yale endowment is up 6.8% as of June 30, 2020, compared to 1.1% average increase at other institutions. Yale experienced an extraordinary run-up in several investments and has taken precautions to cover a possible downturn. The return over ten years has been 10.9% per annum. Thus, the overall outlook is cautiously optimistic, Yale being in an extremely strong position relative to other universities.
Mr. Swensen’s comments were followed by formal and extensive remarks from Budget Committee members, who presented a case that Yale is in a unique position to build at present. John Geanakoplos praised the University’s courage and competence in the Covid health crisis and hoped for the same in the Covid financial crisis. He emphasized the wisdom of Yale’s celebrated endowment spending “smoothing” rule for the long-term preservation of university excellence. The rule specifies slow and gradual adjustments in spending even in the face of big fluctuations in the endowment. The financial losses from Covid have been small compared to past financial crises, yet the cutbacks to faculty hiring and salaries and graduate admissions are disrupting the core mission of the FAS. To give some perspective, the $250 million in Covid costs of which the Provost spoke recently is about equal to the average fluctuation of the Yale endowment in a single day. The FAS salary freeze for 2020-21 represent a savings of $5 million in a budget which last year showed a surplus of $125 million. Geanakoplos explained the rationale for the smoothing rule was to prevent the negative effects of making sudden moves without sufficient time to know what lies ahead, and the imprudence of making sudden moves and then reversing course, as has partially been the case. Most of all, freezes in hiring and graduate student recruiting mean losing ground. Yale, which has the resources that other universities lack, should be using them to gain strategic advantage by recruiting excellent and diverse faculty and graduate students while we can and others cannot. Meg Urry spoke about current opportunities in the sciences. “There is no reason Yale science cannot be better than others,” she urged. “We are bigger than Caltech. We are richer than Berkeley. We have the means and motivation to create a highly visible, highly successful science landscape at Yale.“ Howard Bloch offered a history lesson on the long-term cost of opportunities missed in building the sciences at Yale. Alessandro Gomez spoke about the neglect of Engineering. Sybil Alexandrov spoke about the ways in which Instructional Faculty might be better served. William Nordhaus summarized and reinforced the case.
Daycare under Covid
Naomi Rogers, Chair of the Women Faculty Forum, offered an update on the results of the Senate efforts with the Women Faculty Forum, the Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine, Yale’s Working Women Network, and Locals 34 and 35, encompassing both the childcare arrangements currently available to Yale employees and broader issues of workplace flexibility.
Prison Education Initiative
The Senate voted in favor of a Resolution on the Prison Education Initiative submitted by Diversity Committee Chair, Valerie Horsley.
Retirement Initiative
The Senate voted to approve of a proposal to form an Inter-School Faculty Working Group on the Retirement Incentive Plan headed by William Nordhaus who will report its findings within 3-4 weeks.
With special thanks to David Swensen, Naomi Rogers, and the Senate presenters, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 5:30pm.