Top colleges’ fundraising goals top $4 billion

Still, the process is valuable. Fundraising campaigns — like political ones — force the participants to articulate their priorities and values. That’s important because such campaigns often spark questions about whether the concentration of wealth at the richest universities is good for the public.

AP analysis reveals imbalance
A 2005 Associated Press analysis of the then-47 colleges with $1 billion or more found they held nearly two-thirds of the endowed wealth in American higher education, but educate fewer than one in 25 undergraduates. Those endowments are built with indirect public subsidies — tax-deductible donations and tax-exempt bonds.

“There is greater public concern about, why are they doing this when they’re charging such high tuition,” said Cornell economist Ronald Ehrenberg. “It’s absolutely incumbent on the universities when they go out and seek this money to show they are using it for socially important purposes.”

Cornell, which is partly public, is in fact fairly poor by Ivy League standards. Skorton said he hopes the school will someday replace loans entirely with grants for low-income students, but can’t promise that even with this $4 billion.

The other priorities are recruiting top faculty to replace retiring baby boomers, and updating aging buildings.

The money won’t “sit in some long-term investment pool somewhere just so we can reach an arbitrary level,” Skorton said, reeling off a series of research initiatives in areas like medicine and Third World development.

“Philanthropy should be spread around. But we should get our share because we’re one of the places that’s really turning the crank and changing the world.”

Different schools, different sources
Officials at poorer schools envy Cornell’s wealthy alumni base and access to sophisticated financial advice that produces better investment returns. But most say they don’t begrudge Cornell its donations. Different colleges fish in different pools; Cornell’s gain is usually not another’s loss.

Other colleges are busy with their own campaigns, which have fewer zeros, but are often comparable for their size. Mount Holyoke is announcing a $300 million campaign this weekend. About a mile from Cornell, Ithaca College just launched a $115 million campaign for financial aid, a new business school, and new dorms and sports facilities.

Compared to Cornell, Ithaca “is another world. We’re 6,000 students, not 20,000,” said Ithaca President Peggy Williams. But, she said, “We really believe this is laying the foundation for a very different future.”

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