Thu 13 Dec 2007
But former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent ‘60 echoes some of the concerns elaborated by Wick Sloan ‘76 about academies’ massive accumulations of wealth (and which we discussed last January during CGCL III) in today’s Wall Street Journal.
December 13th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Of course - but is any, much less all, of this continuing and seemingly inevitable change bad? As is almost always the case with respect to change, there will be winners and losers - my gut tells me that the net positive effect over time has been and will contunue to be great with, among other possible things, more resources gradually becoming available for the benefit of a slowly increasing number of students.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Vincent is in the news for a second reason today, as he is quoted in/about the Mitchell report …
December 13th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
“to 35 billion at Harvard,”
I had no idea. That is astounding!
and
“….David Swenson, who has managed the Yale endowment to astonishing annual returns of over 20% for 10 years.”
Wow…who is this guy and how does he do that?
December 14th, 2007 at 12:25 am
He is well connected to the financial world through Yalies and otherwise and gets Yale into the ground floor of deals which are not available to the general public.
December 14th, 2007 at 1:22 am
I just realized what an interesting post this is to run alongside the “..Alumni Fund Donations..” thread.
Especially the part about the potential changes Vincent foresees:
“…does that not mean the administrations of these institutions can operate without the traditional checks and balances of informed alumni?”
December 14th, 2007 at 5:46 am
“…does that not mean the administrations of these institutions can operate without the traditional checks and balances of informed alumni?”
Yeah, and is David just waisting him time raising money for the annual fund? (That’s a joke.)
Even well endowed colleges like Harvard and Williams will continue to ask alumni to donate annually even though these schools could operate without it. These financial resources fund all of the important new programs the college implements.
Vincent is looking at the impact of these developments on big picture issues; governance, and the effect of Harvard’s new pricing policy on the college tuition landscape.
While the new policy does create pricing pressure on lesser endowed institutions it also makes more college affordable for the middle two quartiles in national income level.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:10 am
“These financial resources fund all of the important new programs the college implements.”
Can donors designate where their funds are spent?
If so, then why all the hullabaloo about the Alumni funds?
December 16th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Never mind my question above. It was answered by my re-reading of a post (by Guy) in Alumni Funds thread.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:39 am
1) I have some comments on Swensen in this thread.
2) Although the College allows small donors to check a box (something like: I want this money to go to “student aid” or “faculty” or whatever) this is almost totally meaningless since money is fungible. If everyone checked the “student aid” box, then the College would just move the money that it would have spent on student aid over to some other expense. I wonder if the College even keeps track of those check marks?
3) Very big donors (and class gifts) can have a non-trivial impact on where there money goes, but, again, money is fungible, so it is not clear what real effect this has on College spending.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:12 am
cmon, david, we know how powerful big donors have been in the past…see: the theater and arts center. that had a real and lasting effect on college spending.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:23 am
David:
I do have enough experience with donor dollars to know that what you are saying is mostly true.
However, if an important donor (and I am sure they consider you thus) presents a good idea, something specific and creative and PR worthy, then exceptions are made.
Perhaps someone (creative) from your class could take a little time and look into this. You could turn an unsatisfying experience into an exciting one.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:43 am
1) You can be certain that Williams does not consider me to be an “important donor.”
2) Powerful donors have influence. No one denies that. But most of the big capital projects the College does would be done even if a big donor could not be found ahead of time. I suspect that the College would not have built the new theater when it did if Herb Allen hadn’t suggested/paid. But other such examples are few and far between. Counter-examples?
December 17th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Though I have no idea what kind of money you are talking about, “important” isn’t always about that. You have a voice, and it reaches far and wide…and I would bet they would love for you to be enthusiastic about where your dollars are spent.
Discuss it with your class. Make a liason out of someone who has a good relationship with the administration.
You might be surprised by what comes of it.
December 17th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
David: In passing (ahem) it has occurred to me that I have an archetypically good relationship with the College’s benighted administration. Don’t you agree?