Cornell University's endowment lost 27 percent of its value in the last six months of 2008, according to Bloomberg. The university hopes to decrease expenditures by 5 percent next year, and will cut spending by 10 percent over the next three to five years, Cornell President David Skorton told Bloomberg. In November, Dartmouth announced an endowment loss of $220 million, or 6 percent. Peer institutions' endowments fell by even more, according to Bloomberg -- Yale University's endowment lost 25 percent, or $5.9 billion, and Harvard University's lost 22 percent, or $8 billion. Princeton University is anticipating a 25-percent loss, Bloomberg reported.
The proportion of college tuition allocated for administrative costs and research is increasing relative to the share being spent on classroom instruction, according to a new report on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability by Delta Project, an independent policy group, and reported on by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The report also found that the average tuition for all types of postsecondary institutions increased by at least 12 percent from 2002 to 2006, and tuition for public research institutions grew by 30 percent over that period. Additionally, the report found that efforts to privatize financing, which includes earning profits from private gifts and endowments, generally do not decrease the rates of tuition growth. The report also found that the current models for funding postsecondary education have not led to increasing college graduation rates, the Chronicle reported.
Northwest Missouri State University President Dean Hubbard has initiated a new program at his university to promote the exclusive use of e-books, Inside Higher Ed reported. Hubbard believes that students will read more and learn more with e-books, he told Inside Higher Ed, and that the university, which currently buys textbooks and rents them to students, could save up to 50 percent on book costs. Ten courses are using e-books this semester instead of traditional textbooks, and the university asked students to fill out a survey about their preferences. Survey results from the fall semester revealed that half of the students who used e-books prefer textbooks. The percentage of students who enjoyed using the e-books should increase as more students become accustomed to technology, Hubbard said.
