Evening star., 1932-04-10
BY ALFRED WILLIAMS ANTHONY.
Chairman of the Commission on En-
doDment and Trust Funds of the
Association OF American Colleges.

]
doDment and Trust Funds of the
Association of American Colleges.
IKE all other institutions, colleges
and universities have suffered
severely from the recent finan-
IL cial depression. Not one class
Of securities in which endow-
ment funds are invested has stood
the stress untouched. Even bonds,
many of which have been regarded as
OF the very best security, have depre-
ciated materially in principal value. and
in some instances have defaulted their
interest.
Greater losses have been felt in
| stocks, and particularly in investments
represented by real estate, either real
estate mortgages or the ownership of
real property as an investment. In
some sections of the country the very
life OF smaller and weaker educational
institutions has been threatened Cries
OF alarm have been raised, not by ad-
ministrators only. but also by persons
recognized as experts in the field of
finance and business. Some Of this
alarm is hysterical
A college is one of the most difficult
institutions to really kill or in any way
suppress. Its friends are numerous
even though it be small; they are
found in the geographical unit of
which the college is a part, they are
| represented among its founders, con-
sisting oftentimes of religious demon
stration they are scattered widely
among its graduates; they are to be
numbered also among the hearted
and ig-minded philanthropists of the
country.
Even a weak institution, because Of its
! lofty hoc fr{a IL,
willingly let it die. Unfortunately, how
ever, in the time of a great depression
even the supporters who naturally would
come to the relief of a struggling in
Stitution are themselves frequently so
caught in the meshes of the financial
snarlS and problems as to be themselves
wellnigh helpless.
Complete Survey Difficult.
A calm, dispassionate, broad and in
elusive survey of all the educational in
stitutions of the country is not easy
to procure.
1t is difficult, If not impossible, to
get complete picture at any one mo-
ment because fiscal years do not begin
and end together and because the
methods Of accounting and reporting
vary.
| The Association of American Col
leges. through its Commission on Per-
manent and Trust Funds, made an in
veStigation of the financial condition
Of 227 educational institutions in the
membership of the association at the
close of the fiscal year, approximating
the Summer of 1881. AS shown in
reports then presented, the following
conditions appear:
AS compared with the previous fiscal
/ ha inPnn1n HpNrPQ Sad
| from 5.268 to 6065 per cent. This is
not an impressive loss of income, but
it must be remembered that at the
| lowest level in not a few institutions
| the loss was great, for at the upper
extreme some institutions actually re-
ported an increase of income, due to
| increase in endowments and certain
purely local causes. The real pinch
has come where some institutions have
been left almost without any income
whatever.
Investments Found Secure.
The greater financial suffering ap-
peared among institutions in the Md
die Western and the Southern States
institutions whose investments were
more largely in mortgages - than in
other parts of the country It was
| found, however, that nearly so per
cent of all college investments in the
country were in well secured and di-
versified bonds (the exact percentage
of the investments of the institutions
reporting is 425 per cent?.
Offsetting general diminution of
income were two increases "a in tut
ton and (2) in gifts. Two hundred
and ten institutions reported the re-
ceipt of $4,000, ,945 In gifts, distributed
/ for running expenses, permanent i'm
| provements, capital and other purposes.
| Seventy-two Of these institutions re-
porting had received more IN gsfts n