The global economic crisis and Berry College
A message from Berry President Stephen R. Briggs
Like individuals, families and businesses across the globe, colleges and universities are facing enormous economic challenges – cost pressures are mounting, endowments have lost value, and students and their families are struggling to afford the cost of higher education. Many institutions are making gut-wrenching decisions about their operations, staffing and programs.
Fortunately, Berry is not in crisis, although it is operating in the midst of a massive global economic storm. We are blessed with a significant and well diversified endowment, a stable balance sheet, exceptional board leadership, devoted faculty and staff, and a clear mission, as well as the generous support of dedicated alumni, friends, parents, and others. We also enjoy revenue-generating campus operations unusual for an institution of higher learning, such as the sale of pulpwood from our forests.
All of these assets enable us to look to the future with confidence. Still, we have suffered losses, and the Berry community is working and sacrificing together to tighten operations and reduce expenses so that we can continue our educational mission from a position of strength. At the same time, we are working diligently to enhance the level of need-based aid we can offer to students, expand opportunities for students to contribute to their education through the work program, create new campus enterprises with student leadership, and enhance the overall Berry educational experience.
The success of our students remains our highest priority, and we realize that the economic crisis may affect Berry students more than those from other independent colleges. For details on the many steps we are taking on campus, I invite you to review my full letter to the campus community.
We want current and future students and their parents to know that we are committed to keeping the Berry educational experience both exceptional and within financial reach. We want our alumni to know that their alma mater and its heritage remain vibrant. We want our supporters to know how grateful we are that they continue to make Berry one of their top philanthropic priorities. While support is always important, it is even more critical today as the number of students needing assistance to attend Berry rises. Support for scholarships and student work via the Annual Fund is one of our highest priorities.
We are discovering that difficult times bring us even greater clarity about the timeless importance of the Berry College mission. Martha Berry founded the Berry Schools during a challenging period in Georgia’s history and launched Berry College during the years of the Great Depression. Believing that young people are a nation’s greatest resource, she sought to instill in her students self-reliance, discipline, organization, personal and social responsibility, gratitude and a sense of direction in life so that they might enter the world as engaged and fully contributing citizens. That is exactly what we are doing at Berry College today and what we will continue to do tomorrow. Our values and the value of our mission will enable us to thrive in the midst of hardship and uncertainty.
Steve Briggs
President