College Actually Uses Money For Good
By Aristotle's Son (Chief Contributor) Tags: Congress, Berea, tuition, money, endowment, communism
12:11 PM
The well-endowed are usually so cocky. Berea College, though, is using its endowment to give away learning for free, instead of stockpiling the cash.
I’ve always been told that a good education is priceless. And at Berea College in Kentucky it is! The school uses its $1.1 billion endowment to provide a tuition-free education for low-income families only.
That gift comes with a price though. If you want to say hello to learning on the cheap, then be prepared to say goodbye to football teams, coed dorms, hot tubs or climbing walls. In fact, the food comes from the college farm, furniture is handmade at the college crafts workshops, and every student must have a 10-hour-a-week campus job. What is this, communism?
But at least Berea uses its endowment, instead of greedily hording it from the students who need it most. These days, Congress is looking to force universities to spend more of their moola, as rich schools get richer. Check out these stats from the Boston Globe about the obscene amount of money the Boston area schools alone have amassed:
- Harvard’s $35 billion endowment is more than the GDP of Montana.
- The $10 billion MIT is sitting on could buy Facebook. (Take that Harvard!)
- If Boston College and Boston University joined forces, their combined worth could cover the entire city budget and then some.
A large portion of the endowment schools do spend (usually less than 5%!) mostly goes to providing financial aid, as well as paying faculty, covering operating costs and funding research. But at Princeton, rest assured, a least a small chunk of that change goes to making sure the gardens are replanted regularly.
I guess it’s true, the grass is always greener on the other side.
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