An investigation by The Duly Digest into the financial reports of Emory University has raised serious questions about the financial transparency of the University, as well as how student tuition is spent.

Financial audits, published annually by the University as part of its nonprofit status, have revealed that Emory has made hundreds of millions of dollars in excess revenue, even as it increased tuition by 41% over the past ten years.

The Digest reached out to Emory President Gregory Fenves via email for comment on how the excess revenue was being spent, as well as why the University continues to raise tuition despite turning a profit.

Fenves did not respond directly, and instead the Digest’s email was forwarded to Laura Diamond, Emory University’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications.

Diamond explained that the financial audits the University publishes also include costs and revenue from the Emory Healthcare system. “The consolidated net income is primarily related to the operational earnings of Emory Healthcare,” Diamond said in an email, adding that “the operations of Emory Healthcare do not impact the tuition rate.”

Later in the email, Diamond indicated that the additional earnings of Emory Healthcare are reinvested directly and that Emory Healthcare operates separately from the University.

However, the financial documents published by the University do not differentiate between costs and spending directly related to the University’s academic division. As a result, it is virtually impossible for the Digest to determine how much of the excess revenue is related to Emory Healthcare.

The only information directly related to Emory’s academic operations comes from the Emory University Office of Planning and Administration, which published the financial spending of the University for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

During the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the University’s academic operations made nearly 35 million dollars in excess revenue, equivalent to the tuition of 700 students. But it is unclear how this excess money is spent, and without data about spending from other years, it is difficult to determine where increased tuition money is being spent.

The possibility of excess revenue raises questions about how the University determines the rate of tuition and why it has continued to increase despite the University’s financial earnings.

To answer these questions, the Digest asked Diamond about how tuition is used by the University every year.

In the same email from earlier, Diamond wrote that “Emory determines tuition through a comprehensive process that includes financial modeling, consideration of external economic factors, a review of institutional resources and needs, and current trends in various specialty fields and professions.”

Diamond did not provide additional details, however, leading to questions about what resources and needs the University has that required the rapid increase in tuition.

Over the past ten years, Emory University’s student population, including both the graduate and undergraduate study body, has remained stagnant at approximately 14,000 students. Across the entire university, the number of faculty employed by the University grew by only 250, and the number of total staff employed grew by about a thousand between 2016 and 2020.

The data published by the University does not differentiate between types of staff however, meaning new staff could hold any job from positions in administration to custodial staff.

The increased hiring of staff may be an indication of a trend in colleges across the United States raising their tuition to support bloated administrative positions. But again, without more data, it is difficult to tell.

With the limited information available on the spending operations of the University, and with very little apparent changes in student body and faculty and staff size, it is again difficult to see why the University requires additional tuition.

It also remains unclear what “external economic factors” influenced the University’s decision to raise tuition. An investigation by the Digest revealed that the rate of tuition increases has vastly exceeded the rate of inflation.Over the past ten years, the University raised tuition by nearly 41%, while inflation has increased by only about 21%. If tuition had followed the rate of inflation, the price of tuition would be about $49,000. The current price of tuition is $54,660 and will increase to $57,120 for the 2022-2023 academic year.

At the same time, the United States has seen a rapid increase in inflation, straining families across the country as prices for food and gas soar. The Digest asked Diamond why Emory chose to raise tuition given the economic situation, but she did not specifically address the question.

The Digest also asked specifically about why tuition has vastly exceeded the rate of inflation and whether the price of tuition would ever decrease. Again, Diamond declined to respond specifically to those questions.

A common theme throughout the investigation was a lack of access to documents. Information and data about Emory was spread across dozens of websites and over thousands of pages of documents and was difficult and confusing to read, and did not accurately differentiate between Emory University and Emory Healthcare.

The findings of this article have ultimately left more questions than answers. The University’s documentation and limited official communication with its student body make it difficult to understand how tuition money is spent, and the University does not seem to be willing to provide more details.

Students at Emory have a right to understand how their money is spent, and to demand accountability from the University, especially as it increases tuition every year.