5-6-09: Princeton: Admission office may cut travel

As the University prepares for a projected 30 percent decrease in the value of its endowment, the Office of Admission is reassessing its travel funds while planning to cut 8 percent of its budget for the next fiscal year and another 8 percent the following year, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said in an interview.

Admission officers at Harvard and Penn have already announced plans to scale back their recruitment travel in the coming years, and Rapelye said the University may follow suit, though no concrete budget cuts have yet been determined.

“Virtually everything we do is going to be under scrutiny,” Rapelye noted, adding that her office would not cease travel completely.

She cited examples like alternating visited cities each year and shortening recruitment trips from four or five weeks to three or four weeks as potential means of reducing her office’s travel budget.

Ultimately, Rapelye said that while the admission office will continue to reach out to applicants, it will “have to start consolidating.”

This consolidation may mean coordinating more trips with other schools, she said, adding that the University’s recently introduced trips with the Harvard and the University of Virginia will not be affected by the budget cuts.

The University will also partner with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Chicago for travel related to recruiting engineering students.

“Group travel is quite cost effective,” Rapelye explained, adding that altering the small details of the trips may also help her office cut its budget.

For instance, the “Why Princeton?” program held in Washington, D.C., every year has traditionally been held in the same hotel. This year, the admission office contacted other hotels to ask for lower prices, Rapelye said.
“We ended up holding the program for one-third of the previous cost,” she explained, adding that the event was attended by more than 300 people and that she considered it to have been quite successful.

Rapelye also noted that high schools that offer to host Princeton admission events save the University money because her office does not have to rent out hotels for information sessions.

She added that the admission office hasn’t “made a definite decision” about any cuts, including whether it will lay off employees.

Still, Rapelye said, she expected that campus life would not be drastically affected by the budget cuts in her office or any other departments.

“The administration has been fairly clear that the experience you have on campus will be preserved,” Rapelye said, adding that the admission office will assure prospective students that the University would “continue to support students in this very difficult time.”

“That’s one thing that the University is not going to change,” she said, adding that the goal of her office is to “find ways to keep the communication open between our office and students, parents and guidance counselors.”

As the admission office is “mindful that there will be fewer funds in the next two years,” Rapelye said she anticipates utilizing “creative ways to reach out” to prospective students.

“The next two years are going to be challenging,” she said, but she added, “If we’re going to weather this economic storm, this is the place I’d rather be.”

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/05/06/23650/