After the University faced a $180 million budget shortfall last year because of lost revenue and unplanned expenditures during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said the University broke even in its net operating income during Fiscal Year 2021. Trustee Ellen Zane said at a Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday that GW’s pooled endowment, which does not include the University’s real estate holdings, grew by 30.8 percent during the past fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2020. Officials’ update about the finances they’ve recovered comes after they spent the last year implementing a set of budget mitigation efforts to limit the COVID-19 pandemic’s financial impact, including layoffs and a hiring freeze.
