2008 Woodie Awards
Macalester in the clear after Senate endowment regulation defeated
By: Tressa Versteeg, Staff Writer
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
A mandate that would force Macalester to spend more of its endowment was defeated in Congress earlier this month. The House of Representatives proposed an amendment during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that would require the 136 schools with the largest endowments in the nation, all topping $500 million, to spend five percent of their endowment each year.
Despite the rejection of the amendment, the Senate Finance Committee, led by Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, is still on a mission to collect data about how much money colleges have, how much they spend and how they spend it.
"Tuition has gone up, college presidents' salaries have gone up and endowments continue to go up and up," Grassley wrote in a press release. "We need to start seeing tuition relief for families go up just as fast. It's fair to ask whether a college kid should have to wash dishes in the dining hall to pay his tuition when his college has a billion dollars in the bank."
One of the major reasons the amendment was defeated was the backlash from major lobbying organizations for higher education.
"There was a lot of negative feedback and it generated a lot of concern from the colleges because it would have severely damaged any college's ability to manage the ups and downs of its endowment," President Brian Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg was out of town the week the House announced the proposed ammendment, and said he "didn't have the opportunity" to voice his own concern on the matter.
While Rosenberg did not have a firm number of how much additional money the ammendment would have caused Macalester to spend each year, he approximated that the college would have had to part with at least "several more million than we would have been spending."
On Jan. 24, Baucus and Grassley sent notices to the top 136 endowed schools instructing them to collect data about how their endowments are spent. Chief Investment Officer Craig Aase '70 had the task of filling out the Senate's "fact-finding" paperwork, which was to have been completed in 30 days' time.
Despite the rejection of the amendment, the Senate Finance Committee, led by Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, is still on a mission to collect data about how much money colleges have, how much they spend and how they spend it.
"Tuition has gone up, college presidents' salaries have gone up and endowments continue to go up and up," Grassley wrote in a press release. "We need to start seeing tuition relief for families go up just as fast. It's fair to ask whether a college kid should have to wash dishes in the dining hall to pay his tuition when his college has a billion dollars in the bank."
One of the major reasons the amendment was defeated was the backlash from major lobbying organizations for higher education.
"There was a lot of negative feedback and it generated a lot of concern from the colleges because it would have severely damaged any college's ability to manage the ups and downs of its endowment," President Brian Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg was out of town the week the House announced the proposed ammendment, and said he "didn't have the opportunity" to voice his own concern on the matter.
While Rosenberg did not have a firm number of how much additional money the ammendment would have caused Macalester to spend each year, he approximated that the college would have had to part with at least "several more million than we would have been spending."
On Jan. 24, Baucus and Grassley sent notices to the top 136 endowed schools instructing them to collect data about how their endowments are spent. Chief Investment Officer Craig Aase '70 had the task of filling out the Senate's "fact-finding" paperwork, which was to have been completed in 30 days' time.
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