Wrestling the Budget

If economics is the dismal science, can budget-making be far behind? Dartmouth's several and far-flung departments (known as "cost centers" in the trade), the Council on Budgets and Priorities, and the Trustees, who late last month approved an overall budget of $62,333,000 for 1976-77, ought to know. That not inconsiderable figure represents an increase of approximately $5 million over current levels as both revenues and expenditures are on the rise. It also represents about seven months' worth of adding and subtracting and assorted tinkering.

The budgetary process works something like this. In October the Trustees receive revised figures for the fiscal year then in progress (Dartmouth's runs from July 1 to June 30) as well as projections for the next five years. Starting in mid-November and sometimes sooner, department heads furnish estimates for the coming year to appropriate vice presidents. After initial review by the vice presidents, a preliminary budget is put together to form the basis for setting tuition and room and board charges, which the Trustees approve in January. In February the preliminary budget is given to the Council on Budgets and Priorities, which serves as a kind of watchdog on the allocation of money within the institution and, as was the case this year, recommends possible cuts to the President to bring expenses and income into line. At their April meeting the Trustees, already possessors of fat books of homework, weigh counsel from the treasurer and some other college officers, hear the recommendations of the President and, in a working session of a half-day or so, make the final decisions.

On the surface it is all very neat and tidy. Beneath the surface there is the troublesome matter of dividing the pie to everyone's satisfaction. This year, to bring about a zero-deficit budget, the Council on Budgets and Priorities recommended a decrease of $288,000 from the total of budget requests. The proposed cuts affected several areas, including most prominently Hopkins Center, the libraries, and Kiewit Center, and called for elimination of varsity wrestling and compulsory physical education for freshman. Actually, the budget council cut a total of $345,000 but put back $57,000 for salaries (about two-thirds of Dartmouth's budget is for compensation), bringing the net reduction to $288,000.

The response of the wrestlers was not a happy one, and the Trustees were presented with a petition signed by some 1,300 students urging that the $10,000 sport be rescued. As it turned out, all of the proposed cuts were approved with the exception of compulsory physical education, which also had its campus defenders, including President Kemeny. He described it as a "small cut having a negative effect on a large number of students."

The 16-member Council on Budgets and Priorities is composed of faculty, administrators, students, and alumni and is chaired by John Hennessey, dean of the Tuck School. In describing its work, Dartmouth's budget officer, Foster Blough, says that top priority is given to maintaining the quality of undergraduate education but "the fat has been cut out slice by slice. Now it comes down to programs."