Getting Real About Institutional Finances

I avoid group activities at higher ed conferences like parasite-infected lettuce. They’re too personal. I don’t do let’s-be-vulnerable-with-strangers. And being a journalist, it can feel like I’m an interloper in higher ed’s tight-knit professional communities. I have no relatable work experiences to share.

But this week at the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ annual meeting, keynote speaker Suneel Gupta, an author and host of Amazon Prime’s Business Class, tricked me into sharing. Before I could slip out the back, Gupta had us pull the note cards from under our chairs and write down our biggest worry in life, anonymously. Then, I was among the 1,600 attendees walking the enormous hall swapping card after card and writing “+1” on the back if we’d ever felt the same thing.

I learned that someone’s middle child was probably going to jail and they are draining their retirement fund to pay the legal fees. Another person was terrified by the world her unborn child is coming into. I read that someone’s father recently died and without his guidance they felt adrift. Several people were worried about excelling in their careers and still being able to show up for their family. A scary number of marriages were in trouble.

This was heavy stuff for 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning in the cavernous Anaheim Convention Center. But it was effective in communicating Gupta’s message to the chief financial officers leading the country’s higher ed institutions: Never worry alone. He reminded them that beneath their numbers, data and meetings, they are impacting people’s lives, even in the smallest ways.

Despite my queasiness over an exercise in vulnerability and honesty, I realized that at a time when higher ed institutions are facing existential financial worries, there was no better way to kick off a meeting of the people in charge of the money. Because no matter how dire a budget looks, the real challenge to overcome is always people.

That same idea—don’t worry alone—surfaced in sessions over the course of the three-day event. Honest and clear communication among CFOs, presidents and the board is mission-critical, yet so many colleges struggle with it. Leslie Brunelli, the executive vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer at Washington State University, described the “magical thinking” at this level of governance: “Regents think that if we just explain to faculty the situation, they’ll be OK with us cutting their program,” she said. It’s not that the board doesn’t understand finances; they just don’t understand higher ed.

Gerald Hector, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Morehouse School of Medicine, said CFOs have to be storytellers that turn “accountant-ese” into something institutional leaders can understand. “Make it as basic as possible without overwhelming them,” he said, adding that data is key. “Present the facts in a way that is indisputable. Use trends and benchmarking to take the emotions out of it.”

In other sessions, CFOs shared their concerns about the rising cost of athletics. They encouraged each other to be honest with campus leaders about deferred maintenance and transparent in their endowment reports to donors.

Academic program costs are another place where campus culture makes honest communication about money hard. And still, according to Inside Higher Ed’s 2026 Survey of College and University Business Officers, academic program restructuring is the most important structural change institutions need to make in the next three years to remain financially viable. Yet, just 13 percent of CBOs say their institution understands per-student program and activity costs very well. Responding to that figure in a session at the event, Laura De Veau, visiting assistant professor in education leadership and higher education at Boston College, said, “That’s bananas!” She added, “The costs have to match what we’re bringing in.”

Money is always about more than what’s in the bank. Higher ed finances are no different. Boards are full of alumni with emotional ties to a decrepit residence hall that should be razed. Deans are territorial over their budgets. Faculty and staff often don’t understand that costs are rising faster than state appropriations. But with greater honesty and vulnerability from everyone on campus about the true state of an institution’s finances, leaders will be better placed to make the tough decisions that could shore up their institutions’ future.