Pressure Builds on Wealthy Colleges to Spend More of Their Assets

The $5.7-billion endowment here at Washington University in St. Louis is a nest egg that makes a lot of things possible.

Endowment proceeds begat the whimsical, stainless-steel spherical sculpture now hanging in the lobby of the sleek new art museum, which gives off a funhouse-mirror effect from below; the sprawling collection of books on the Third Reich that fills more than a room in the library; scholarships for medical students that allow them to graduate with lower levels of debt

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