Then this probably won’t help much.  Paul Caron posting at MoneyLaw posts Senate Asks Why Colleges Earn 17.6% on Endowments But Spend Only 4.6% on Students.   What?  With college presidents paid like rock stars, and even law school professors getting multi-million dollar pads, the money had to come from somewhere.

The Senate is asking 136 schools (out of 4300 nationwide) to explain why they are soaking students (my words) with the annual barrage of tuition increases when they are sitting on endowments of $500 Million or more.  Harvard, the mother load of endowments, tops the charts at $34.6 Billion.

So what are they doing with these vast riches?  Well, they aren’t holding the line on tuition, that’s for sure.  And why not?  According to Inside Higher Education,

Asking colleges how the endowment payout “meets the needs of the current student body,” for instance, fails to recognize that endowments exist primarily not to get an institution through the next year or even five, but to support its long-term financial health,  Sarah Flanagan, [vice president for government relations and policy development at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities] said.

It strikes me that  colleges and universities must certainly watch out for their “long-term financial health.”  But doesn’t $34.6 Billion seem to be enough of a cushion?  And at what point do they show concern, any concern at all, for the long-term financial health of their students?

I can’t quite articulate a reason for this, but I somehow doubt that Harvard is in imminent fear of no new applications for the coming school year, such that it will have to dig deeply into its endowment.  So for all you law students worried about that lack of job prospects and repayment demand from your friendly student loan provider, at least you can take comfort in knowing that no harm will come to Harvard on your watch, no matter how much the application rate drops.