We're All Going to Be Fine! Budget Edition

Tonight's Budget Town Hall with Provost Chris Eisgruber and Executive Vice President Mark Burstein (who CDY described as the two highest ranking administrators in the University under President Tilghman, making us wonder about all sorts of questions about presidential succession at Princeton) reaffirmed two things we've been pretty much thinking all year:1.) Even though the Princeton endowment is way down, we're all pretty much going to be fine.2.) No matter how high ranking the administrator, students are not going to voluntarily attend a budget town hall meeting (the thirty-something people who did show up were dwarfed by the venue, McCosh 10. Most were there because members of the USG were required to go.)Item number one is actually pretty exciting, though. After the "horror stories" coming out of Harvard (no cookies at faculty meetings?!) it pretty much sounds like any cuts that were going to happen have already happened - the Forbes dining hall closed on Saturdays, and the new printing quota. It's been a month at school (or more for some people), and it doesn't seem like anyone's world has been rocked too seriously.We're going to be OK!Budget numbers after the jump!It all starts with endowment. Here's what's happened to the endowment, and why it matters:

• The endowment was down 23.7% for the 2009 financial year, from $16 billion to $12 billion

• The endowment funds 48% of the annual budget - $636 million last year.

Princeton is planning on an 8% reduction in the budget for this year and another 8% for next year. That means a total budget cut of around $170 million.The important thing about this budget cut is that it is not a one-time thing - the budget will be $170 million smaller permanently (or until the endowment really recovers.) To use Provost Eisgruber's favorite metaphor, "this isn't a tighten-your-belt-and-hold-your-breath situation; it's a lose-the-weight-and-keep-it-off situation."Our favorite part of the town hall meeting (if we had to pick one) was probably all the super wonky investment questions USG members threw at the pair of administrators. Special praise to VP Mike Weinberg '11 and his dazzling question about the possibility of the "early repayment of University-issued taxable debt with the thawing of the credit markets" (only at Princeton!).Even though $170 million sounds like a lot of money (actually, all of these numbers seem comically large), remember that all the cuts that really affect students have already been made. At the risk of being hubristic, it certainly seems like we've weathered the worst financial crisis in 70 years and come out the other side pretty much fine.(What's that sound? Oh, that's just everyone who read that last sentence knocking on wood.)