‘A year of stabilization and renewed momentum’: Barnard releases its record for fiscal year 2025
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The College reported a significant reduction to budget deficit, as well as significant financial growth due to operational changes and major assets and investments.
Photo by Haley Scull/The Barnard Bulletin
February 14, 2026
On January 28, President Laura Rosenbury and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Sharon Hewitt Watkins released a report to the Barnard community detailing the College’s financial statements for fiscal year 2025 (FY25).
Citing a goal to increase transparency, Rosenbury reported FY25 as “a year of dramatically improved operating performance,” compared to the College’s operations “at deficits of over $20 million a year” in FY23 and FY24.
In FY25, Barnard reported total operating expenses of $275.7 million, with the largest share of 37 percent (roughly $102 million) being allocated to instruction, including faculty salaries, academic departments, and other teaching expenses. Other significant areas of spending included student services and institutional operations that support Barnard’s day-to-day functioning.
Barnard reduced its operating deficit to $1.7 million, a significant improvement from deficits exceeding $20 million in FY23 and FY24. The report stated that this improvement was driven by increased revenue from tuition and enrollment growth, decreased instructional and administrative expenses, and stronger endowment investment returns; in 2025, Barnard enrolled about 50 more students, raised the cost of tuition by 5.5 percent, lowered Columbia cross-registration costs, reduced administrative spending, and reorganized staff. President Rosenbury and Vice President Watkins characterized FY25 as a “year of stabilization” with regard to Barnard’s efforts to align revenues and expenses.
At the end of FY25, the College’s endowment totaled $557 million. Made up of over 1,000 individual funds, the endowment has increased each year since 2022, when it totaled $447 million. President Rosenbury and Vice President Watkins announced an “ambitious goal” to increase the endowment to $1 billion by the end of FY30, noting that the plan was “rooted in long-term sustainability, not scale alone.” The report noted that, in comparison to other highly-ranked Northeast liberal arts colleges, including Amherst, Williams, and other Seven Sisters Colleges, Barnard’s endowment “lags behind those of [its] peers.”
While the report highlighted the way Barnard continues to commit to access and affordability, Rosenbury and Watkins also wrote, “The demand for financial aid continues to grow, and the resources available to support students remain constrained.” While Barnard increased financial aid by ten percent in FY25, the school’s endowment only covers 33 percent of that aid. The remaining aid was covered by annual operating revenue, placing greater pressure on Barnard’s budget. “Peer institutions with significantly larger endowments are able to offer more generous aid without affecting operating revenues,” President Rosenbury and Vice President Watkins wrote.
Barnard issued $155.5 million of debt in FY25, in part due to the construction of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center. This $250 million project is set to open this summer for the upcoming Fall 2026 semester. The community message also acknowledged the future operating costs of the new science center.
“Although important work remains, we will approach it from a position of increasing strength — guided by Barnard’s history and a clear commitment to excellence, access, and impact,” Rosenbury wrote.
Barnard’s audited financial statements are available in their entirety on the College’s website.