RECESSION REACTION
Stanford headed into 2009 making every attempt to reassure families under financial pressure that the University is committed to maintaining and increasing the aid they need despite the national economic downturn.
President John Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy emphasized the University’s readiness to help parents, students and applicants facing setbacks. (“If a student’s family financial situation deteriorates, we fill in the difference,” Etchemendy, PhD ’82, told the Stanford Report.) The financial aid office began making adjustments as appeals for more help began to arrive throughout the summer.
“It’s not like everybody’s rushing in,” says Karen Cooper, director of financial aid. But “there is a lot of anxiety out there,” she notes. She says about 45 percent of undergraduates are receiving need-based scholarship funds from Stanford, and she expects that to “go up a little bit.”
In early December, Etchemendy sent an e-mail to faculty and staff explaining that the worsening investment climate meant that “a prudent forecast requires us to eliminate as much as $100 million in base expenses from the $800 million general funds budget over the next two years.’’ He reiterated that financial aid commitments “remain firm,’’ but noted that the University’s workforce would have to be reduced through a variety of options provided to deans and managers. He added that he and the president were taking immediate 10 percent cuts in their salaries and that other University leaders also had volunteered for pay reductions.
REHNQUIST PAPERS TO HOOVER
The Hoover Institution has received the papers of the late William H. Rehnquist, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years and as chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005.
The papers, donated by the Rehnquist family, were partially opened November 17 and include notebooks and a journal from Rehnquist’s days at the Law School. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford in 1948 and his law degree in 1952.
WORK BEGINS ON LOKEY STEM CELL CENTER
October groundbreaking ceremonies kicked off the work on what is projected as the largest U.S. center for stem cell research—the $200 million Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building, expected to be completed in 2010. The funding includes a $75 million gift from Lokey, ’49, retired founder of the Business Wire public relations wire service. Another $43.6 million will come from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
STANFORD AS ECONOMIC ENGINE
A study conducted by a consulting firm measured Stanford’s spending in 2006 at more than $2.1 billion in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, counting salaries and wages, goods and services, and construction and capital equipment. As Silicon Valley’s largest employer, the University paid $1.4 billion in salaries and wages. The study accounted for the activity of the University, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the recently renamed SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
“This study shows the enormous economic benefits for local communities from this economic activity,’’ wrote President Hennessy in a letter accompanying the report.
