2008 Woodie Awards
Editorial: Why the endowment is important to me
Michael Lutkenhouse
Issue date: 2/9/07 Section: Opinion
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Princeton recently made news when they announced that for the first time in four decades tuition for the next academic year would not increase. This decision of course was not made because their Board of Trustee's decided that they would be nice this year; private university's are a business and they do have bills to pay. No, Princeton has its endowment of 13 billion dollars to help allow it to keep costs to students steady. This compares to the Stevens endowment of 130 million. So while Princeton is earning 2.53 billion dollars on their endowment Stevens, if we're earning the same interest as Princeton, is earning a meager 25.35 million dollars on ours.
So why is this important to us, the students. The difference in endowment sizes allows Princeton to cover all of it's scholarships based purely off interest from it's endowment and use the remaining to keep costs down and invest in it's facilities. Meanwhile here at Stevens it's questionable as to if the endowment can cover all of the scholarships. If needed the school than has to reach into operating budget to cover scholarships and this takes away from money that could be going towards current programs and renovations.
Recently there has been talk about setting goals of increasing the endowment by sizeable amounts, some even calling for a goal of an endowment of 1 billion by 2020. While initially that seems a bit high it's also needed in order to keep competitive in the always-moving business of higher education.
So what can we do, how can we as students help? Certainly we're not in a position currently to make the donations needed to bolster the endowment, but the next time you see an older couple slowly walking around campus take a moment and say hi, who knows, maybe they once dormed in your room; on your hallway. They cherish these short moments with students more than words can describe and I think that in short time you would begin to appreciate their stories, their experiences. It all starts with alumni relations and making them aware of those who are affected by the donations and endowment; us.
As an alumni we must be charitable and part of that is to be charitable to the school that has educated and been our home for these 4 years. We don't come home here for Christmas, there is no equivalent to thanksgiving, but we should remain active as alumni and we do need to give gifts back so that others too may have the opportunities that we currently have.
So why is this important to us, the students. The difference in endowment sizes allows Princeton to cover all of it's scholarships based purely off interest from it's endowment and use the remaining to keep costs down and invest in it's facilities. Meanwhile here at Stevens it's questionable as to if the endowment can cover all of the scholarships. If needed the school than has to reach into operating budget to cover scholarships and this takes away from money that could be going towards current programs and renovations.
Recently there has been talk about setting goals of increasing the endowment by sizeable amounts, some even calling for a goal of an endowment of 1 billion by 2020. While initially that seems a bit high it's also needed in order to keep competitive in the always-moving business of higher education.
So what can we do, how can we as students help? Certainly we're not in a position currently to make the donations needed to bolster the endowment, but the next time you see an older couple slowly walking around campus take a moment and say hi, who knows, maybe they once dormed in your room; on your hallway. They cherish these short moments with students more than words can describe and I think that in short time you would begin to appreciate their stories, their experiences. It all starts with alumni relations and making them aware of those who are affected by the donations and endowment; us.
As an alumni we must be charitable and part of that is to be charitable to the school that has educated and been our home for these 4 years. We don't come home here for Christmas, there is no equivalent to thanksgiving, but we should remain active as alumni and we do need to give gifts back so that others too may have the opportunities that we currently have.
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