Board of Trustees votes to conserve endowment
Lesser withdrawal may affect EC tuition and faculty salaries
Susan Martin
Staff Writer
Tuition and faculty salaries may possibly be affected by the Elmhurst College Board of Trustees withdraw of a significantly smaller amount of money from the EC endowment than had been previously anticipated for the 2005-2006 school year.
According to Jim Kulich, EC’s executive vice president, the typical college institution uses a portion of their endowment to help support the operation of the school.
In the 2003-2004 school year, the board of trustees voted to withdraw an additional $2.1 million, beyond the typical 4 percent, from both the endowment and other long-term reserves, Kulich said.
Then, in the 2004-2005 school year, the board again approved an additional $2.5 million draw beyond the set percentage.
“In the 1980s, when Elmhurst College established growing the endowment as a top priority, as little as 1 percent of the endowment’s market value was used to support operations,” Kulich said.
However, in recent years the board of trustees have established a policy to use 4 to 6 percent of the endowment’s average market value toward operation expenses. According to Denise Jones, EC vice president of financial affairs, when the college closed its 2005 fiscal year, it was realized that nothing over 4 percent was needed.
“We originally thought we would need $3.4 million over the 4 percent” Jones said, “but it now appears that we will be able to reduce that amount to $1, 435,000.”
The money that makes up the endowment come from gifts to the college that are invested according to plans set by the investment committee of the board of trustees.
“Many donors prefer to contribute to endowment funds because of their permanence” Kulich said. “Donors often like to know that their gifts will help the college for a long time to come.”
According to Kulich, the annual budgets are built carefully in a way so that in recent years some proposed spending has been put on hold. Recently, the college has implemented a wage freeze and several faculty positions went unfilled due to the conservative budgeting.
However, this year, “the average raise all employees received was 3.5 percent” Kulich said.
He added that there are currently no plans to return to a wage freeze, and new faculty have been hired in various departments including the center for business and economics, chemistry, communication arts and sciences, education, English, foreign languages and literatures, mathematics, music, nursing, philosophy, and psychology.
“Some of these appointments were temporary, to replace faculty on leave for the year” Kulich said. “Others were intended to fill lines not filled in recent previous cycles. Still others are expansions to departments.”
“The whole point of this strategy is to use the endowment to get the college over a financial bump in the road in a way that maintains progress, as opposed to solving the financial issues by the use of significant cuts,” Kulich said.
Normal endowment spending is also tied to the cost of tuition.
“The extra dollars recently drawn from the endowment were, in fact, used to prevent the college from having its short-term financial issues through raising tuition more, cutting aid, or cutting services that affect the quality of student experiences.”
According to Kulich, the board of trustees sets the cost of tuition each March and takes into account revenue needs, having financial aid available, the college’s ability to attract the type of students they want, and Endowment spending.
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Billy Mills, 1964 U.S. Olympic gold medalist, visited Elmhurst College as the annual Champs Life Skills speaker.
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Dry erase leaves chalk in the dust
A chalkboard eraser hits the floor, emitting a cloud of chalk dust into the otherwise clear air, “See this?” asked Vicki Root-Wajda, adjunct assistant professor at Elmhurst College. Root-Wajda is one of several EC faculty members that have a clear preference for dry erase boards in place of regular chalkboards in the classroom, a trend that is occurring in classrooms around the country.
“I hate chalkboards because it gets my allergies going. Most classrooms have chalkboards, unfortunately,” explained Root-Wajda. “I realize that the pens are expensive too and once you leave a marker uncapped-there it goes, but I think that students find it easier to see.”
Christine Shore, freshman accounting major agrees that chalk is sometimes too hard to read.
“I like dry erase boards because they are easier to see and they are not as dusty as chalkboards,” she said.
Though the lines are drawn between chalkboards and dry erase boards, the two forms of classroom presentation have a lot in common.
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EC students awake to intruder in dorm room
Unidentified male allegedly falls asleep and urinates in Stanger Hall
In the early morning of Sunday, Oct. 23, two Elmhurst College residents woke up to find an unknown male sleeping in their room.
The Stanger Hall residents immediately contacted their resident adviser and campus security was called.
According to one of the students who discovered the man in her room, the alleged intruder woke up, urinated on the floor, and passed out again.
It is not known how the alleged intruder came into the building or the room.
Upon EC Campus Security’s arrival, the alleged intruder could not be woken up at first. The Elmhurst Police Department was called to the scene.
While the Elmhurst Police assessed the situation, the resident adviser on duty stayed with the two female residents in order to ensure their safety.
According to the students, they were not present when the police arrived.
The Elmhurst Police took the alleged intruder into custody.
The Elmhurst Police Department and EC Campus Security declined comment at press time, citing that the case was still under investigation.
Look to the next issue of The Leader for full coverage.
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