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Thursday, November 23, 2017
Carnegie Mellon University Endowment Grows to $1.7 Billion
www.cmu.edu/news: Carnegie Mellon University's endowment stood at $1.72 billion as of June 30, 2017. During the preceding fiscal year, the endowment contributed $68 million to university operations or approximately 6.0 percent of the overall budget.
4 comments:
Sarah C.
said...
Having over a billion dollars in endowment seems pretty great. It lets our school do things others maybe couldn't, like building new top-of-the-line scientific facilities, bringing in lots of speakers and famous alum, or providing many off-campus opportunities for students. But something I hope will start happening now that CMU has such a high endowment is providing students who need it with better financial aid. I know from personal experience that they really don't give everyone who needs it the aid necessary to even semi-comfortably attend CMU. I myself only have enough savings, scholarship, and luck to pay for one year, even with the aid they gave me. With that paid for I'm still going to be $120,000 in debt by the time I leave with my loans, something my family can't even remotely cover and I can only pray I can pay on an artist's wages. While I have no illusions I'm getting more aid because of this higher endowment, I can only hope that those coming in next year in situations like mine can get the help they need along with all the other students who need it.
And I hope this didn't come off like complaining about my personal financial aid package or situation. Financial aid is something I'm genuinely concerned about for others, and I truly hope that this increase in available endowment will help student much like how bigger endowment helps the Ivy leagues give more financial aid to be more affordable despite their high tuition.
Having close to 2 billion dollars in endowment is a great thing for the university in a lot of ways as it allows different colleges and departments to do things that other universities are simply not able to do just by the barrier of money. What the university will do with this is always the question though as CMU is in an interesting position of having such a diverse array of colleges and fields of study that there isn't one clear answer for any of it. All I ever hope for when I here a growth in the endowment is that the university and the grads that are controlling and giving the money are thinking about giving back to the students first. Wether that be through financial aid or higher new professors creating new buildings and learning spaces the most important things to me is that the students are thought of first.
Large endowments at colleges and universities can be scary, especially in today’s political climate when the talk in Washington is about slashing student aid via the Pell Grant and federally subsidized loans. Yes, it is great to see CMU build up a strong financial foundation through strategic investments, but it would also be nice to see some of that money put to use to ease the financial burden of students who don’t come from high income families so that they are not saddled by debt upon graduation. Building state of the art research facilities or performing arts venues is another good step forward. How about taking some of that endowment and expanding Purnell so the students who attend classes there can have more room to grow and the program can grow and add more to enhance the education of current students? Hire additional world class faculty, but not before your current faculty get a bump in pay. Just like taxes are needed for roads and bridges, if we want excellence in education, it has to be paid for and the bill can’t entirely be on the backs of students.
I have heard many stories about the CMUs endowment and how small it is compared to the other schools of our caliper. I find it interesting that people say this because if you think about the CMU endowment in the terms of induvial people, it is actually one of the largest in the country. Another thing to think about is how young our university actually is. Especially when you put it up to other schools that have been collecting money for centuries. CMU is only celebrating their 50th year as one university. An Ivey league school, like Harvard or Yale, has been around much longer than CMU, and with there strong alumni base comes a lot of money. One day I hope to see CMU in a similar place and continue to grow their endowment and continue to give back to the university and the students. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this university continue to rise and grow as a global institution.
4 comments:
Having over a billion dollars in endowment seems pretty great. It lets our school do things others maybe couldn't, like building new top-of-the-line scientific facilities, bringing in lots of speakers and famous alum, or providing many off-campus opportunities for students. But something I hope will start happening now that CMU has such a high endowment is providing students who need it with better financial aid. I know from personal experience that they really don't give everyone who needs it the aid necessary to even semi-comfortably attend CMU. I myself only have enough savings, scholarship, and luck to pay for one year, even with the aid they gave me. With that paid for I'm still going to be $120,000 in debt by the time I leave with my loans, something my family can't even remotely cover and I can only pray I can pay on an artist's wages. While I have no illusions I'm getting more aid because of this higher endowment, I can only hope that those coming in next year in situations like mine can get the help they need along with all the other students who need it.
And I hope this didn't come off like complaining about my personal financial aid package or situation. Financial aid is something I'm genuinely concerned about for others, and I truly hope that this increase in available endowment will help student much like how bigger endowment helps the Ivy leagues give more financial aid to be more affordable despite their high tuition.
Having close to 2 billion dollars in endowment is a great thing for the university in a lot of ways as it allows different colleges and departments to do things that other universities are simply not able to do just by the barrier of money. What the university will do with this is always the question though as CMU is in an interesting position of having such a diverse array of colleges and fields of study that there isn't one clear answer for any of it. All I ever hope for when I here a growth in the endowment is that the university and the grads that are controlling and giving the money are thinking about giving back to the students first. Wether that be through financial aid or higher new professors creating new buildings and learning spaces the most important things to me is that the students are thought of first.
Large endowments at colleges and universities can be scary, especially in today’s political climate when the talk in Washington is about slashing student aid via the Pell Grant and federally subsidized loans. Yes, it is great to see CMU build up a strong financial foundation through strategic investments, but it would also be nice to see some of that money put to use to ease the financial burden of students who don’t come from high income families so that they are not saddled by debt upon graduation. Building state of the art research facilities or performing arts venues is another good step forward. How about taking some of that endowment and expanding Purnell so the students who attend classes there can have more room to grow and the program can grow and add more to enhance the education of current students? Hire additional world class faculty, but not before your current faculty get a bump in pay. Just like taxes are needed for roads and bridges, if we want excellence in education, it has to be paid for and the bill can’t entirely be on the backs of students.
I have heard many stories about the CMUs endowment and how small it is compared to the other schools of our caliper. I find it interesting that people say this because if you think about the CMU endowment in the terms of induvial people, it is actually one of the largest in the country. Another thing to think about is how young our university actually is. Especially when you put it up to other schools that have been collecting money for centuries. CMU is only celebrating their 50th year as one university. An Ivey league school, like Harvard or Yale, has been around much longer than CMU, and with there strong alumni base comes a lot of money. One day I hope to see CMU in a similar place and continue to grow their endowment and continue to give back to the university and the students. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this university continue to rise and grow as a global institution.
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