College Scholarships Dry Up Along With Endowment Funding

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:17:00 GMT

For the six-month period ending in December, college endowments nationwide lost an average of 24 percent, according to the nonprofit Commonfund Institute of Connecticut, forcing a handful of small regional universities to make significant cutbacks to their scholarship funds for the upcoming fall semester (“More Bad News on Campus: Scholarships Drying Up,” Associated Press, March 12, 2009).

This year, Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, provided half a million dollars for 500 scholarships, said Mike Westfall, vice president for university advancement. After experiencing a 20-percent drop in its endowment, the school will only be able to provide $100,000 in scholarships for the coming academic year, which, Westfall said, will significantly impact its student population.

“Over 50 percent of our students are first-generation students. First-generation students tend to be more dependent on financial aid. To take that away is troubling,” he said. To make up the difference, Eastern has increased its fundraising efforts and created a new scholarship website.

Rhode Island College, which saw a 22-percent drop in its endowment this year, has decided to suspend all scholarships for the upcoming school year, largely because the college’s endowment scholarship fund is “underwater” after dipping below the amount the fund started with.

The University of Wisconsin-Superior will have to offer approximately $100,000 less in endowed scholarships next year based on the decline in value of its endowment.

And with only $200,000 available for scholarships next year — after distributing about $900,000 this current year — Western Washington University in Bellingham plans to increase scholarship fundraising for the fall to cover its 30-percent drop in endowment funds.

The school would also like to increase funding for its $800,000 annual scholarship campaign to make up for endowment losses, said Stephanie Bowers, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the university foundation.

Bowers characterizes next year’s scholarship prospects as bleak, but said that she remains hopeful about the future, “When you work for a foundation, you take the 100-year view.”

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$100 Million Given to Oklahoma State University by Alumnus T. Boone Pickens

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:11:00 GMT

Chairman of BP Capital Management and philanthropist, T. Boone Pickens, is giving $100 million to Oklahoma State University — the single largest academic donation ever made to a college or university in the state of Oklahoma, according to a university press release (“Largest Academic Donation in Oklahoma History,” May 21, 2008).

“Without question, Boone’s gift will enable us to retain and attract extraordinary faculty members better ensuring OSU students will be inspired by exceptional and accomplished professors and researchers, said OSU President, Burns Hargis. “It launches us on our way to achieve big dreams.”

Pickens, a 1951 graduate of Oklahoma State, has donated a total of $400 million to the school. His most recent gift is eligible for a dollar-for-dollar match through the State of Oklahoma’s endowed chair program, which doubles the gift’s value to $200 million, and will more than double the current number of faculty chairs.

OSU currently has 101 fully funded and matched chairs and professorships set at $500,000 and $250,000 each respectively. The endowment gift will establish more than 150 chair and professorship positions, which will be determined by the university.

“This gift is due in large part to the vision and leadership of Burns Hargis,” Pickens said in his address to the school. “He is absolutely the right person at the right time to be OSU president and I believe he will guide OSU to levels of success we have never seen before.”

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Student Loan Blog : endowment funds

College Scholarships Dry Up Along With Endowment Funding

$100 Million Given to Oklahoma State University by Alumnus T. Boone Pickens