Carlos Santos with the Times-Dispatch has joined Bacon’s Rebellion and others who experience cognitive dissonance from the fact that Virginia’s public universities continue to jack up tuitions even as their endowments soar to record levels. The University of Virginia endowment, he notes, grew by roughly $800 million last year even as the university hiked tuitions by 8.3 percent. The experience at Virginia Tech and William & Mary were comparable. (If this sounds familiar, it may be because you read it here.)
United States senators are paying attention, too. Santos quotes Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, as follows: “Tuition has gone up, college presidents’ salaries have gone up, and endowments continue to go up and up. We need to start seeing tution relief for families go up just as fast.”
Santos does make a couple of valid points in defense of the universities. Much of a university’s endowment is restricted — people attach conditions to their gifts. As Yoke San Reynolds, vice president and CFO of UVa, says, “We cannot spend the distribution from an endowment for cancer research to reducing tuition.”
Fair enough. The next step is getting more information from universities about their endowments. How much of the endowment is restricted, and how much is not? Inquiring alumni and donors want to know.