University Endowments and the Role of Donors’ Wishes

According to Karen W. Arenson, When Strings Are Attached, Quirky Gifts Can Limit Universities, NYTimes.com, April 13, 2008:

[T]he Seeger money, which must be spent only on matters Greek, is now worth $33 million, multiplying through aggressive investing like the rest of Princeton’s endowment. So the university offers Greek, Greek and more Greek[.]

“Institutions do get shaped by the interests of donors,” said Robert K. Durkee, vice president and secretary of Princeton.***

Recent interviews with college officials show that while many restrictions are for broad uses like faculty chairs and student aid, others are less central to the functioning of a modern university. Some are outright quirky.***

College officials say they try to be receptive to donor wishes, even when they sometimes seem strange. That happened at Wellesley College, when Leonie Faroll, a 1949 graduate, asked the college to use her gifts for the college’s power plant. When she died in 2003, those gifts totaled $860,000.***