Posts Tagged: endowment

Revisiting the Work of Dartmouth’s John G. Kemeny: A NEJHE Q&A with College Presidential Historian Stephen J. Nelson

Stephen J. Nelson is professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State University and Senior Scholar with the Leadership Alliance at Brown University. In the following Q&A, NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney asks Nelson what lessons today's leaders could learn from his latest book, John G. Kemeny and Dartmouth College: The Man, the Times, and the College Presidency (Lexington Books, ...

On the Climate Crisis: Urgency Isn’t Enough

In May, NEJHE posted A Modest Proposal to Save the Planet, in which a lawyer, an environmentalist and a college success expert called on nonprofit organizations with endowments over $1 billion to invest 10% of their endowments in corporations whose primary business activity is building and operating alternative energy systems based upon the endless supply of the sun's energy and the wind. They con...

Shortsighted Tax Policy: Senate and House Tax Reform Bills Would Increase Burdens on Universities and Students

If there is one area of common ground between the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, it is that the time has finally come for those entities that are not currently paying their fair share of taxes to step forward and be held accountable. Both the Senate and House tax reform bills propose that these entities—which have traditionally been afforded favorable tax ...

Divesting from Fossil Fuels Makes Sense Morally … and Financially

Should university endowments divest from fossil fuels? A public discussion of this question has seen some university presidents issuing statements that they would not divest—that investments should not be used for “political action.” Many universities hold large endowments that have significant positions in fossil fuel companies or funds that hold fossil fuel assets. Universities consume fos...

Hartford Seminary Awarded $1 Mil for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations

The International Institute of Islamic Thought awarded the Hartford Seminary $1 million to help endow a professorship in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations.The gift will help fund a chair in the Islamic Chaplaincy and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary's Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.Timur Yuskaev, assistant professor of Contemporar...

Buying Access to Ivy: A Way to Revive Harvard

Of the many, many articles written on Harvard University’s endowment woes, I have yet to read one actually sympathetic with Harvard. Perhaps this reflects our gleeful voyeurism when the high-and-mighty fall, or sense of justice that the reckless should pay for their recklessness, or belief that no university truly needs or deserves such a large nest egg, or perhaps the reality that, even after t...