CSHL Moving Forward with New Faculty Hires Despite Weak Economy

CSHL Moving Forward with New Faculty Hires Despite Weak Economy
November 13, 2009
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NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory expects to balance its budget and carry out new faculty hires as planned over the next year, despite an uptick in expenses related to its new Hillside Laboratories and the weak economy, which in part accounted for a year-to-year dip in proceeds from its largest fundraiser, two top administrators said this week.

In an interview with GenomeWeb Daily News, President Bruce Stillman and Chief Operating Officer Dillaway Ayres Jr. said CSHL's budget will rise next year to about $133 million, from about $125 million this year and $123.5 million in 2008.

"We try to balance our budget each year after taking full depreciation expense. It has been a struggle to do that in the last few years," Stillman said.

The increase, Stillman and Ayres said, reflects increased depreciation as the Hillside cluster has begun to be used, in addition to rising operating expenses, and recruiting costs. CSHL traditionally has had younger faculty members at earlier career stages, working on rolling five-year appointments, since the laboratory does not grant tenure.

"That creates a problem, in a sense, in that we constantly have to recruit people. We have to constantly get new funds to do that," Stillman said.