F. Scott Fitzgerald famously observed, “The rich are not like us.” In higher education, we have our version of the rich: well-heeled institutions that enjoy endowment values in the billions of dollars. Most of the time, such institutions are not like the rest of us, especially during budget-building season.
Perhaps it’s only natural to feel a touch of jealousy over such wealth. Jealousy is ugly, to be sure, but it’s also a common emotion.
The Germans have a nice word for the extension of jealousy: “schadenfreude,” or taking pleasure at the expense of others, especially when they are in pain. I suppose that the endowment declines of our wealthiest institutions have invited a sense of Schadenfreude at their expense. “Ah,” one might say with glee, “those hoarders! They have trusted in the abundance of their riches, but now they are struggling just like the rest of us.”
Is it fair to feel that way about reported declines in the values of the largest college endowments?
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