On Wednesday, the Department of Economics, in partnership with the American Association of University Professors, held a lecture that discussed, debriefed and detailed Kenyon’s publicly available financial statement for the 2023-24 fiscal year. Associate Professor of Economics PJ Glandon came prepared with a 23-slide presentation and gave the talk to a room of approximately 30 faculty members and five students. The presentation went into detail on the majority of the 30-page-long financial statement, making it understandable for the general public. 

At roughly 500 million dollars, Kenyon’s endowment is small for a school of its size and caliber — Oberlin College’s, in contrast, sits at approximately 1.2 billion dollars. Every year, Kenyon draws around 5% of its endowment to use for operational expenses, which is typical for a school of its size, according to Glandon. The issue for Kenyon is revenue. As of 2024, revenue has stopped increasing. This is happening for several reasons. 

The first is tied to class size. The Classes of 2026 and 2027 are quite large. The first-year and sophomore classes are small, at 435 and 460, respectively. Fewer students enrolled means fewer tuition dollars, which leads to less revenue. Net tuition is down 4.4 million dollars since 2013, along with a decrease in money spent on room and board. The College currently spends approximately the same amount per student that it did in 2013, but with less available money to draw from. The second reason is the endowment. Kenyon’s endowment is 47% illiquid, meaning it is inaccessible. The compounded average annual return on investment for the endowment since 2008 is 5.91%, which is low. This is because Kenyon follows a low-risk, low-reward method of investing, which is largely focused in long-term hedge funds and private equity. The trend of declining revenue is expected to continue.

Glandon pointed out that institutions of higher education are especially poorly suited to cost cutting since they cannot scale down on buildings or staff. Thus, Kenyon needs to have bigger classes to accommodate for the growth of buildings and the hiring of talented faculty. 

Associate Professor of English Piers Brown, who was in the audience during the presentation, remarked, “The College is in a bit of a tough place, and we need to think carefully about what we’re going to do next, and as a faculty-governed institution, faculty should be involved in that, and that means being literate about what’s going on so we can have good input and and knowledgeable input into the budget.”

In an email to the Collegian, Vice President for Finance Todd Burson stated: “Kenyon is doing well financially but the College is operating in a challenging environment where operating costs are rising faster than the rate of increase in revenue. Kenyon will need to work at controlling the growth rate of expenses but this also means working tirelessly with families to help them afford a Kenyon education.”

On whether the College is attempting to cut costs, Burson wrote to the Collegian, “The leadership team is reviewing all discretionary spending and pulling back on some expenditures as needed.”