Quick Takes
Smaller Endowments Are Outperforming Larger Ones
The national economic downturn appears to be reversing the long-standing trend in which larger college endowments earn more than smaller endowments. Of course this year, the comparisons are about losses, not gains. The Wall Street Journal reported that in the fiscal year ending today, the five largest college and university endowments anticipate final losses in the 25-30 percent range. But examining data from Northern Trust Corp., which manages 90 endowments, the Journal found that the median loss for endowments for institutions with less than $100 million was only 16 percent.
Private Colleges Report Small Tuition Increases
A survey of private colleges has found that they are increasing tuition and fees by an average of 4.3 percent for 2009-10, the smallest increase in the survey since 1972-3, when the hike was similar. The survey results reflect 350 members of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The College Board releases a more comprehensive analysis of changes in college costs in the fall. A NAICU spokesman said that the association's results are usually within two- or three-tenths of a percentage point of the College Board data. Last year, NAICU found a 5.7 percent increase and the College Board found a 5.9 percent increase for private colleges.
How U. of Illinois Created Its 'Clout List'
A state panel investigating an admissions scandal at the University of Illinois on Monday heard testimony about how the "clout list" -- which gave special consideration to politically connected applicants -- was created. The Chicago Tribune reported that Abel Montoya, a former admissions official, recounted that in 2002, the university rejected an unqualified student with ties to former Gov. Jim Thompson. Chancellor Richard Herman told the admissions office to reverse the decision, and that led to the creation of the special list that is the center of the controversy, the Tribune reported. Herman has said that he will discuss his take on the situation when he testifies before the state commission.
2 Wins for Academic Labor
Wisconsin's budget bill, signed into law on Monday, gives collective bargaining rights to academic employees in the University of Wisconsin system, including tenured and tenure-track faculty members, part-time and full-time lecturers, adjuncts and others. The Wisconsin branch of the American Federation of Teachers lobbied for the law and is expected to now move ahead with organizing campaigns. Those drives would be campus-by-campus, and an AFT spokesman declined to say which institutions might be first. Also on Monday, the AFT announced that instructors and adjuncts at Western Michigan University voted, 207-29, to unionize with an AFT affiliate called the Professional Instructors Organization.
Bad Writing Contest
The results are in for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for 2009. The annual award -- from the English department at San Jose State University -- honors the worst opening sentences for imaginary novels. This year's winner, David McKenzie, offered the following: "Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."
