Colleges Still Have Money Enough to Share

To the Editor:

"Market Collapse Weighs Heavily on College Endowments" (The Chronicle, February 6) thoroughly documented the overreaction colleges and universities are having to the recent drop in the value of their endowments. Losing 26 percent of value in the last 18 months is of course a rapid drop. But it doesn't amount to much in the context of the incredibly steep gains these funds have enjoyed in recent years.

College and university endowments increased, on average, 17.2