Marx was referring to was a suggestion by Senator of Iowa Charles Grassley (R) that the richest universities dole out five percent of their endowment each year. Grassley, along with Vermont Representative Peter Welch (D), organized the conversation yesterday afternoon, at which Marx and a dozen other college presidents and policy experts discussed college costs and the potential impact of endowment payout legislation.
“The truth is that a spending floor will not achieve much social benefit overall, while bringing real risks,” said Marx, who warned that endowment spending has to be flexible to adapt to changing economic times, such as this year, when most colleges (Amherst included) are expecting single digit or negative returns on their endowments. “We are not foundations that can reduce grant-making; we cannot close the English department or biology department during a downturn,” Marx said.
In his remarks, Marx commented that some students may be scared off by Amherst’s high price tag, despite the fact that fewer than half of Amherst students pay full tuition.
Marx was joined by Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman, who was steadfast in defending Princeton’s, and other college’s, spending practices. “Endowments are not ‘rainy day’ funds or ‘piggy banks’ being saved for another day; the income that is earned through investments is the ‘working capital’ that we use every day to support our programs of education and research, and importantly to provide substantial amounts of student aid,” explained Tilghman. “With their spending policies colleges and universities seek to provide as much support as possible for this generation of students and faculty while also ensuring that we can meet the needs of future generations.”
According to InsideHigherEd.com, much of the roundtable discussion was dominated by Marx and Tilghman.
Marx prefaced his statement at the discussion with a warning that he has laryngitis, and that his voice was not in top shape, a statement that many first-years have heard during orientation. However, Marx’s voice at the discussion represented a marked improvement from the first few days of school, when Marx struggled to get through he Convocation speech because of a problem with one of his vocal chords.
“I first lost my voice at the end of June but doctors thought it would return soon. When it didn’t, I underwent several tests and now understand that one of my vocal chords is not working properly. No one knows for sure why or how long it will last, though I hope it will return soon and am encouraged that it has improved a bit over the last month,” said Marx. “I did not cut back on meetings or speeches, though perhaps I should have, as there is important work to be done, not least as the College approaches a major fundraising campaign.”
Marx said he considered having Dean of Faculty Gregory Call speak at Convocation, but decided against it because of the personal nature of his speech, which delved into his post-college experiences in South Africa [see sidebar]. “I am sorry I couldn’t project it more forcefully,” said Marx. “And I am so sorry not to be able to mingle and chat with students more effectively for now.”