We reported in Tuesday’s Post that Ohio University has been setting aside increasingly larger portions of its nearly $500 million endowment for internal uses since 2011.
We reported in Tuesday’s Post that Ohio University has been setting aside increasingly larger portions of its nearly $500 million endowment for internal uses since 2011.
While it might appear at first glance that the university is simply swindling a bigger portion of the endowment — a large pool of donations set aside for long-term university accomplishments — for its operations, we believe the use of the funds is warranted and fruitful for future students.
Our reasoning is simple: the university has to spend money to make money, just like how we choose to invest a small fortune in our education now in order to earn a living upon graduation (and paying off those student loans).
Even though that figure is more than three times that of 2012, we’re not concerned with the increase as long as the university is upping our annual spending allocation as well. OU’s spending allocation has increased at least $1.1 million every year since 2011.
The Post was unable to track down exactly how this year’s administrative fee would be distributed for Tuesday’s story, but Jennifer Bowie, executive director of communication and marketing for University Advancement, said the increased fee and larger fundraising yields (more than $464 million since 2007) are “directly related to one another.”
The key, we imagine, is finding the equilibrium that nets the university the highest possible profits. Again, the university has to spend money to make money.
We take no issue with the practice in this instance.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
