Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown Posts First Budget Surplus in 11 Years

Georgetown closed FY13 with a surplus of $2.7 million, the university’s first operating surplus since FY02.
“We’ve been on a path to balance the budget,” Vice President for Financial Affairs David Rubenstein said. “That resulted in a small surplus, other than what we had started out with at the beginning of the year, which was a small deficit.”
The university’s $1.121 billion in revenues exceeded its $1.118 billion in expenses during the last fiscal year, which was the first year of a new five-year financial plan.
The plan, approved in February 2012 and implemented at the start of FY13, aims to create an operating surplus of $2.1 million by the conclusion of FY16.
The main campus’s $15.9 million surplus was up $3.2 million from FY12, despite the cost of construction on Regents Hall and the School of Continuing Studies’ new downtown location.
“We had very good fundraising performance. We had some one-time revenue items such as in the summer school area, and we have had ongoing tight expense control,” Rubenstein said.
The Georgetown University Law Center, which ended FY12 with a $40,000 deficit, saw a $4.5 million surplus at the close of FY2013. This was slightly above the projected $4.4 million surplus.
Among other university departments, there was a combined $7.2 million budget surplus, up from the $1.9 million deficit experienced during FY12.
Georgetown University Medical Center was the only area of the university that did not have a surplus, instead operating with a $24.9 million deficit. According to Rubenstein, this deficit was largely the result of the high overhead costs of biomedical research, which the federal government does not fully cover.
Despite GUMC’s expenses, however, it remains a major source of revenue, with a $21.0 million increase in revenue over the last fiscal year.
Enrollment increase in the School of Nursing & Health Studies’ online nursing masters programs, and a $12.8 million revenue-sharing payment from MedStar Health increased GUMC revenues.
“The faculty at the medical center are generating a lot of revenue in terms of tuition revenue from teaching and grants,” Rubenstein said.
“If we didn’t put in those funds to support the research mission, we actually couldn’t generate all of the other revenues,” Rubenstein said.
In addition, the endowment’s success during FY13 contributed to its operating performance. The university’s $1.2 billion endowment generated $72 million in revenue, contributing to the $119 million increase in the university’s total assets. This 11.8 percent rate of return was a sizeable increase from FY12’s 0.9 percent.
In addition to an increase in investment returns, the university also saw a 32.4 percent increase in gifts to the university. Frank McCourt’s (CAS ’75) record-breaking $100 million donation was received after the conclusion of the fiscal year and was not included in the data.
Overall, Rubenstein attributed Georgetown’s financial success to cooperation across the university.
“The performance is really attributed to the university acting as a whole community – it’s not anything that any one individual is responsible for,” Rubenstein said. “Many people worked very hard over the past fiscal year, and they sacrificed as well in order to make this all happen.”

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