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Students before endowments
Business Week economics editor Peter Coy has issued a strong call for universities to end the endowment arms race -- which, he argues, shortchanges today's students. Coy suggests universities "should act more like companies, which somehow manage to operate without endowments" and concludes by reminding trustees: "You're supposed to be running a service business, not piling up a treasure."
Coy's call to shift the focus back to students echoes the argument made by Edward Costikyan in an essay issued by ACTA. In the piece, Costikyan, a Columbia University trustee emeritus, calls on boards to increase their spending of endowment income in order to "reduce tuition and loans."
With an ever greater number of American families feeling the pinch as the economy worsens, trustees should listen to Coy and Costikyan and make sure they put students before endowments.
Posted by David Azerrad on March 03, 2009 at March 3, 2009 05:16 PM
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