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Again this year, Johns Hopkins University achieved
better-than-ever financial results. Revenues reached $1.8
billion, and net cash flows from operations were $129 million.
With an operating surplus of $73 million, and investment returns
of $128 million, the University added net assets of $257 million,
bringing total net assets to $2.4 billion. Long-term debt
declined, despite extensive new investment in plant and
equipment.
At year-end, the Johns Hopkins Initiative had topped its
fund-raising goal of $1.2 billion and still had a year to run.
This campaign is succeeding in every academic division of the
University, with top priority now focused on raising endowment
for student aid and libraries, and on funding new facilities.
The University is likewise benefiting from the effective
investment of these funds, along with its existing endowment and
operating revenues. Investment returns for the year exceeded 8.6
percent, with controlled exposure to risk.
Johns Hopkins depends on revenue from three major lines of
business--sponsored research, instruction, and other services
(especially patient care)--carried out in varying degrees by each
of its operating divisions. Of course, these activities are
interrelated. Research generates new knowledge, and knowledge
becomes part of instruction and is applied in patient care.
Instruction and medical treatment raise questions that generate
new directions in scientific research, and the cycle repeats
itself. The revenue that supports one line of business, in
effect, supports the others by spreading fixed costs over a
larger base, enabling faculty to carry out the full range of
academic responsibilities.
In dollar terms, sponsored research is the dominant line of
business at Hopkins, providing over $1 billion, or 58 percent of
total operating revenue. The other sources, equally critical to
the University's mission, provide a diversified financial base.
Instruction revenue (tuition, fees, housing, food service, etc.)
represents about 12 percent of the total, with clinical services
and other service activity representing 10 percent. The balance
is from investment income and gifts. An emerging line of
business, sale and licensing of intellectual property, has
potential for considerable growth, but as yet it is not a major
source of revenue.
Maintaining the overall financial vigor of the University depends
upon each division striking a careful balance among its lines of
business, a balance that differs markedly from one division to
another. Thus, the School of Medicine and the School of Public
Health--both of which have preeminent programs of instruction and
public service--must nonetheless protect the singular positions
they occupy as recipients of sponsored research funding for
schools of their kind. Similarly, the Applied Physics
Laboratory carries out instructional programs in cooperation with
the School of Engineering, and actively engages in public service
projects in the community, but its primary focus must be on
retaining its edge in research for national defense, space
exploration, and civilian application of its technological
capabilities.
In contrast, the Peabody Institute, the School of Advanced
International Studies, the School of Nursing, and the School of
Professional Studies in Business and Education are more heavily
weighted toward instruction, with emphasis on enrollment
management, student services, revenue enhancement, and
market-based pricing. The Schools of Arts and Sciences and
Engineering have an even more complex task, combining as they do
the need for student-oriented management of their instruction
programs with the demands of their positions as centers of
research excellence. In all divisions, fund-raising is an
increasingly important part of financial well-being.
To achieve an overall balance among its lines of business and
maintain financial stability, Johns Hopkins has for a decade
employed a rolling five-year financial planning process. Each
year in conjunction with the development of its annual budget,
the University projects detailed estimates of each revenue and
expense item of each division. These estimates originate in the
operating divisions, are subjected to thorough analysis by senior
management, and reviewed in detail by the Trustee Finance
Committee. The five-year plan is not a rigid construct. Each
year it is updated and revised, as new opportunities and
challenges present themselves. But the structure of the
five-year plan assures that the long-term consequences of all
policies, decisions, and external events are taken into account.
The process has served Hopkins well.
James T. McGill
Senior Vice President for Administration
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SCHOOL OF NURSING
In January 1998, the School of Nursing moved into a new
state-of-the-art education and research facility. Situated
in the heart of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
campus, the building is the first structure at Hopkins
dedicated solely to nursing education and research. It also
houses the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing and the
Center for Nursing Research. The building, named in honor of
local philanthropist Anne M. Pinkard, consists of six levels
and includes a 230-seat auditorium, two 110-seat lecture
halls, classrooms, practice laboratories, interactive
computer video labs, research space with behavioral
laboratories, study rooms, a café, and a serene
outdoor garden courtyard.
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