This is especially significant to the university, because endowment earnings provide needed resources to improve the quality of our programs. Bucknell's strong endowment performance contributed significantly to this growth. Our performance has placed us among the top 10 schools in the nation for the three-year period ending in June 1997. Earnings continued to be strong for 1997-98, with a 25.12 percent growth rate.
Endowment is one of the key measures of an institution's strength.
A large and growing endowment also permits the university to rely less heavily on tuition revenues. This year, endowment spending will account for 8.1 percent of all revenues, up from 7.3 percent in 1996-97. This means we can continue to invest in quality while controlling price.