this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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Most donations are restricted to the purpose of the donation. You'd need to know how much of the endowment is for scholarships. Sometimes schools will have an immense amount of money, but can't actually lower tuition because the money is tied up in other things. If I give money for an endowment that supports future replacement of electron microscopes, that does fuck all for your tuition.
Presuming of course that they absolutely weren't going to replace those microscopes without that endowment. If they were, then that endowment frees up some money elsewhere in the budget. Unless literally every penny they hold has strings attached, then the fungibility of money means they could use general fund money they aren't spending on X because of an endowment on Y instead.
In many, if not most, cases there would never be room in a budget for an electron microscope at your average mid sized or small school. Keep in mind we're talking about a million+ dollar expenditure.
In many cases improvements like a building or an electron microscope absolutely hinge almost entirely on donations, that's why they are so attractive to a donor. They can make real lasting improvements to a college or university that wouldn't otherwise exist.
Even the endowed scholarships that go to assist with tuition are never as big as people think. If you have a $100,000 endowed scholarship. The school is likely only giving $4,500 of that out each year so they can grow the endowment at the same rate they give out money, thereby ensuring future students get more help.
I'll paraphrase a real world example. School X has a $100 million dollar endowment, with $65 million going to endowed scholarships, that's only ~$3 million a year for tuition relief. That same school is looking at a $45 million a year budget. Certainly they could chose to spend down their endowment and give their students 2 years of free school... And then what? Pass on the 3 million a year budget shortfall to future students?
I work in higher Ed, I agree the system is broken, but most schools endowments come no where near being able to give free tuition.
Yeah, people like to have their names on physical things so they pay for more buildings rather than paying for scholarships.