Senate Looking at Endowments as Tuition Rises

[kurth]

January 25, 2008
Senate Looking at Endowments as Tuition Rises
By KAREN W. ARENSON

The Senate Finance Committee, increasingly concerned about the rising cost of higher education, demanded detailed information on Thursday from the nation’s 136 wealthiest colleges and universities on how they raised tuition over the last decade, gave out financial aid and managed and spent their endowments.

The committee also asked about endowment-related bonuses paid to college presidents and endowment managers.

The move came as a record 76 colleges and universities achieved endowments of $1 billion or more in the last fiscal year, according to a report released this week. Harvard’s endowment, the largest, grew 20 percent, to $34.6 billion, while Yale’s, the second largest, grew 25 percent, to $22.5 billion.

“Tuition has gone up, college presidents’ salaries have gone up, and endowments continue to go up and up,” said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the committee. “We need to start seeing tuition relief for families go up just as fast.”

The committee, which has a central role in setting tax policy, has been pressuring universities to use more of their wealth for financial aid and threatening to require them to spend a minimum of 5 percent of their endowments each year, as foundations must. The committee pointed out that donations to universities and their endowment earnings were both tax-exempt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/education/25endowments.html

[lurky]

1. Have you seen the salaries for college presidents lately?

They're going up as fast as corporate CEO paychecks. A lot of these guys get over a million dollars a year in salary/benefits. Most of the presidents at big universities get between a half-million and a million a year. There doesn't seem to be a link between academic reputation and pay, either.