This morning’s News & Observer contained a lengthy article about how, over the past year, 50 plus faculty at UNC Chapel Hill have been lured away to other universities and UNC administrators have been largely unsuccessful in stemming the exodus. Both Senate and House versions of the State budget recommend deep cuts to the UNC system, so the problem may only get worse.
The article states UNC-CH spends about $1 million a year to help persuade faculty to stay and also that private fundraising efforts are being sought to address some of the issues.
Which raises an interesting point: last year, the market value of the UNC-Chapel Hill endowment was about $1.9 billion. According to the National Assn. of College and University Business Officers, colleges with endowments over a $1 billion have — on average — about 75 percent of funds in restricted accounts and 25 percent of funds in non-restricted accounts. If we do some simple math, we find 25 percent of $1.9 billion is $475 million. A conservative rate of return of say 4 percent return generates $19 million. Is there a good reason why a portion of these funds can’t be used to supplement existing efforts?
Yes, there are questions to be answered. However, can someone tell me why tapping into existing resources is not a good place to start?
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