January 28, 2008
A Billion Here, $2-Billion There
Brilliant Futures. Carolina First. Far Above. No matter what fancy name a university puts on its fund-raising campaign, they all are raking in billions of dollars right on schedule.
Cornell University announced over the weekend that it had surpassed the halfway point in its $4-billion drive. The 2007 fiscal year brought in the most private donations in the university’s history, with $759-million pledged. In the first six months of the 2008 fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2007, Cornell has secured $325-million in private gifts.
The University of Illinois is ahead of schedule in raising $2.25-billion by 2011 for all three of its campuses. The university collected $1.23-billion as of November, almost 55 percent of its goal.
The University of North Carolina ended its largest campaign ever on December 31, far exceeding the original goal of $1.8-billion, with a total of $2.38-billion raised. The campaign went over the top with a $9-million donation to the School of Pharmacy which was matched by the North Carolina University Cancer Research Fund.
Erin Strout | Posted on Monday January 28, 2008 | PermalinkComments
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...and meanwhile tuition hits record heights as students and if they’re lucky their parents too go further and further in debt.
Why not look at the 1945 GI Bill and the return on investment it has been? Make college affordable!
— Not a Socialist, but a pragmatist Jan 28, 04:08 PM #
For public universities (which used to be “affordable”) the problem lies with declining state support. For my institution I have two striking graphs: one shows the proportion of state support; the other shows tution cost (both from 1960 to present). As state support dropped from 78% in 1960 to 12% today, tuition has risen from 21% of the GF budget to 60% today. In the 60s these two components accounted for 99% of the budget. Today they are about 80% of the budget with research and endowment income contributing the remainder. Essentially, the state has transferred their burden to the shoulders of the students (and their families). So, tuition reaching record heights is simply reflecting state support reaching record lows.
— LMS Jan 29, 05:54 AM #