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Operating Budget Detail

Major Categories of Revenue

  • Tuition and fees net of financial aid account for 55% of total revenue.
  • Student housing and dining contribute 10% of total operating revenue, while all other auxiliary operations account for 4% of the total.
  • Expendable philanthropic contributions account for 3% of total revenue for operations. Gifts to endowment and gifts for construction (i.e., not expendable for operations) are in addition to this total.
  • The endowment generates an ongoing source of annual operating revenue from a distribution that is based on a rolling twelve quarter average of the endowment's market value. Endowment distributions, combined with earnings on short-term investments of operating cash balances, provide 4% of the Washington Square Campus budget. (The market value of NYU's total endowment at August 31, 2010 was approximately $2.4 billion - $1.7 billion of which was for the Washington Square campus, and $740 million was for the School of Medicine.)
  • Income from commercial real estate represents 3% of the total revenue budget.
  • Sponsored research accounts for 6% of total revenue, while sponsored educational programs accounts for 6% of the total.
  • Clinical income from dental patient care provides 2% of all operating revenue.
  • All other sources of revenue total 7%. This category includes many relatively small items such as service payments from the School of Medicine, an annual appropriation from the State of New York, and transfers from non-operating funds.

Major Categories of Expense

  • Expenditures for operation and maintenance of the physical plant (e.g., debt service, rent, energy, cleaning, building maintenance contracts, etc.) account for 18% of the budget.
  • General operating expenses account for 17% of the budget.
  • Eight percent of the budget is transferred to non-operating funds, primarily the capital fund for construction and IT projects.
  • Professional services and fees make up 5% of the expense budget.
  • One percent of the budget is designated for contingency and academic investments.
  • Expenditures for salaries and employee fringe benefits comprise 51% of all expenses.

Expenditures by Purpose

  • Expenditures by schools and institutes comprise 63% of all expenditures.
  • Facilities management and campus safety account for 13% of total expenditures.  
  • The direct cost of auxiliary operations, including student housing, dining, and residential education, account for 5% of the total budget. When the fully allocated costs of facilities management and administrative operations are added, the expenses of auxiliary operations more closely match the revenue from auxiliary operations.
  • Administrative units comprise 11% of the total, and include services such as development, finance and legal.
  • Provostial operations, including such units as the Offices of Admissions and Financial Aid, represent 2% of total expenditures.
  • Information technology services and student affairs each account for 3% of the total.
Photo: Washington Square North

Endowment Per Student

In a national study of 536 private institutions' endowments at June 30, 2009, NYU's total endowment (including the School of Medicine) was the 18th largest in total size, but 177th in endowment per student (or $58,085 per student).

Endowment Performance

For fiscal 2010 (9/1/09 - 8/31/10), the Endowment generated a return of 8.0%.  This performance meaningfully exceeded that of the major market indices - for example, the global equity index return was 4.0% for the period.  The Endowment’s portfolio is diversified across multiple asset classes and strategies.  It has also maintained a conservative approach to the utilization of leverage and maintenance of liquidity, which served NYU well during, and emerging from, the recent financial crisis.  Over the past ten years, the Endowment’s annualized return was 5.3%. 

Employment

In the Fall 2010 semester, the University employs 7,969 individuals in academic positions as full-time and part-time faculty members and researchers, and 4,873 individuals as full-time and part-time technical, clerical, service, and administrative employees. In addition, throughout fiscal 2011, the University is likely to employ approximately 9,500 part-time students in hourly positions.

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