It is a pleasure to welcome everyone back to campus for the start of the 2025-26 academic year. I hope everyone enjoyed a productive and pleasant summer. There is much that has been happening here over the last two months, and I am pleased to be able to update our community on key developments.
Peabody is fully committed to meeting our mission within a healthy, financially responsible framework and we are mindful of the unpredictable external environment in which Johns Hopkins University and other top universities continue to operate today. Hence, we continue to take a careful approach to our financial planning and use of institutional resources as we navigate this moment.
A key part of Peabody’s financial strategy in recent years has been to eliminate previous structural deficits through planned revenue growth and prudent expense management. Turning the corner in the prior 2024 fiscal year, Peabody effectively accomplished this finishing with a surplus and now adding to that positive margin with a surplus for a second consecutive year in FY25, which concluded June 30, 2025. It is important that we continue to build reserves so that Peabody has adequate funds in the future, in addition to its endowment, to ensure sustainability and specifically to support program innovation, development, and investment in the academic mission.
In 2015 Peabody launched its first Breakthrough Plan and then continued on that trajectory with the launch in 2019 of Peabody’s Breakthrough Plan 2024. When Peabody began formulating its next strategic plan in early 2024, it did so through the lens that much had been accomplished in the previous two incarnations of the “Breakthrough” including the launch of new programs, significant enrollment growth, new innovations in curriculum, investments in faculty, and more.
Fast forward to the launch of our Building on the Breakthrough plan in December 2024, built on the foundation of having garnered major new investments in financial aid, as well as plans to undertake comprehensive capital renovations as part of Peabody’s next phase of growth and development. Building on the Breakthrough highlights five key areas including academic programming, financial aid, expanding our reach, people and culture, and our home— the Mount Vernon campus.
A strategic plan is only as useful as the attention paid to it as a living, breathing document and roadmap for an institution. That means holding ourselves accountable for the goals we have set forth and being transparent as to progress on those goals throughout the trajectory of the plan. Our sights need to be set high, but with our eyes focused on the details that will determine success. With that in mind, this summer we completed the first inventory and update on each of the 25 goals that comprise this plan. I invite all members of the Peabody community to go to Building on the Breakthrough to learn more about progress on plan initiatives.
While the summer offered a break from the academic year, work continued in earnest on Peabody’s capital improvement initiative, one of the major components in Building on the Breakthrough. Our design team, Ennead, hosted a series of focus groups representing Peabody faculty, staff, and students, as well as colleagues at the university, to develop the program for the renovated towers. In addition, we achieved another milestone in this project this summer with the selection of Whiting Turner as our construction partner for the building renovations. Whiting Turner brings an international reputation and deep experience with arts-related projects, as well as a long history of projects with Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, following a careful review of acoustical firms, we have chosen Kirkegaard to partner with Ennead on all acoustical issues impacting the renovations. Kirkegaard has a long and storied history of concert hall design, and as recently as seven years ago, its founder, Larry Kirkegaard, consulted on a first phase of Friedberg improvements that included expansion of the stage.
With the impending move of all student housing in just one year to the Waterloo Apartments, this summer a working committee was stood up to specifically address a myriad of details necessary to ensure a smooth transition. There will be much more to share on this in the months ahead.
Finally, other improvements this summer across the campus include renovation of restrooms in Leakin Hall as well as considerable progress in work ongoing in Friedberg Hall. This work includes new technical systems and acoustic upgrades which are on track for expected completion by March 2026.
The start of a new academic year always brings excitement and energy to the campus, especially as we welcome new students, faculty, and staff to our community. It is in fact that regular renewal of energy and ideas which continues to propel Peabody to ever greater heights. I look forward to that continuing in abundance and to sharing more progress in the year ahead.