By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
The clock is ticking on scholarships for Eastern Washington University students.
As stock markets continue to slide, so do college endowments, endowments utilizing market investment interest to help students pay for education. Eastern's Foundation is no exception, and while the university's endowment fund has performed better than the Standard & Poor's 500, down 24 percent from July 1 – Nov. 30 compared to the S & P's 29 percent, the decline still threatens the university's ability to match the $500,000 in scholarships it awarded last year.
Unhappy with that prospect, Foundation executive director and vice president of university advancement Mike Westfall and his staff have issued an SOS – Save Our Scholarships, a grassroots campaign to help the university reach its scholarship goal.
“This is a national issue, but this is our response to it,” Westfall said last Friday.
Nationally, private institutions such as the University of Chicago have slashed budgets by millions because of endowment declines. Some are also freezing and cutting wages, making staff take unpaid leaves, and curtailing needed construction projects.
Even public institutions are being hit hard. The University of Washington is cutting 86 positions while the University of Wisconsin state system is offering $700,000 less this year in assistance because of endowment losses.
Many universities use endowments to help pay for operating expenses. Westfall said Eastern does not, utilizing almost all of the money for scholarships and program support.
The market decline has dropped Eastern's endowment fund from just over $13 million to about $9.5 million. This means less capital earning interest, and subsequently just $100,000 to use for scholarships.
Westfall said Eastern could, as other institutions are doing, drop scholarships and offer apologies, or they could “be bold and do something.” They settled on bold, and launched an appeal to the community at large, and alumni in particular.
Donors can go to the website, http://www.saveourscholarships.net, and make contributions directly. Eastern has until April 15 to raise as much money as possible, and has a countdown clock and monetary barometer on the site keeping track of progress. As of 36 days, 7 hours, 1 minute and 26 seconds, $118,809 had been raised, leaving the university $381,191 short of its goal.
Westfall said anyone can donate, and can donate any amount. While the largest to date has been $3,000, even contributions as little as $5, $10 and $25 help, and the more made, the more impact they will have.
“I'm not expecting a home run, but collectively, maybe we can all hit a home run,” Westfall said.
As an example, Westfall listed a meeting two weeks ago with the Tawanka Club. A staff member brought up the SOS program, and the 17 women in attendance reached into their pockets and came up with $550.
Contributions made to the fund are tax deductible. That's a two-edged sword because in order to maintain it's non-profit status, the Foundation is limited to using only the interest made off its principal to provide assistance.
“People may wonder why we don't take money from the principal amount – instead of the earnings – but we are prevented from doing so if the endowment is under water, below the initial amount endowed,” EWU media relations director Dave Meany wrote in an email. “This is because the state follows the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act.”
Westfall added the Foundation would also have to seek permission from those who contributed to the endowment, since those funds are generally provided with stipulations.
“Endowments aren't set up for the next five years,” he said. “They're established for perpetuity.”
As a public institution, Eastern receives state assistance, but that has been declining as a percentage of the university's budget as overall costs have increased. Meany said in fiscal year 2008, that amount was 30 percent of the operating budget while in 2009 it will be about 27.5 percent.
Eastern is taking other fundraising avenues as well as the website donations. A direct-mail appeal will be going out this week, along with campus requests. Westfall also said that acting-president Dr. John Mason is issuing a personal request to the university's top 40 administrators to donate.
Westfall said it's important to raise the money to keep scholarship giving as high as possible. Eastern is a unique institution, with nearly 50 percent of its students being the first in their families to attend college, and are potentially more vulnerable to dropping out of school and staying out should financial difficulties arise.
“For first generation students who take that break, life happens,” Westfall added.
For them, the clock could be ticking down on a potentially better future.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]
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