<p>In comparing Scripps to its peer women's colleges on the East Coast, I noticed that Scripps has a significantly smaller endowment. Given its relatively young age, this makes sense. How has the current economic recession affected Scripps's budding endowment? I was unable to find any news articles on the percentage-decline.</p>
<p>Students at Scripps received a letter from the college addressing this issue several months ago. I can’t find it now, and have no percentage to give you, but the letter sounded positive. The office of financial aid did not expect scholarship funds to be overwhelmingly effected, and of the Claremont colleges our endowment had fared better than most. We took a dip, of course, but the college didn’t seem too worried about its effects.</p>
<p>Thanks–did the letter note what percentage would be cut from this year’s budget?</p>
<p>Scripps is actually in a good position compared to a lot of colleges right now. Even though a lot of school have a bigger endowment than us, they lost significantly more money and are having problems adjusting. I talked to my friend who goes to Wellesley and they, like many other colleges (Brandeis, Pomona, etc), are cutting faculty and increasing enrollment, even though they have a larger endowment.</p>
<p>Scripps is not firing any teachers (to my knowledge) and we are actually reducing our class size. We’ll even be adding a new department soon. </p>
<p>This is all that I’ve heard about the economic downturn and Scripps besides the letter that Eternal Icicle mentioned.</p>
<p>To my knowledge they didn’t release a specific percentage to be cut. And like PlanetaryPrinces noted, our faculty seems to be expanding for the next academic year.</p>
<p>That’s good to hear. What department is being added?</p>
<p>They haven’t decided, but I hear they’re trying to add a department that is either non-existent or very weak at the 5Cs. Some of the ones that I remember from the large list are environmental studies, social geography, middle-eastern studies, education, creative writing, and architecture.</p>
<p>Oh, I hope they strengthen creative writing… That’s definitely not a 5C strong point, much to my disappointment.</p>
<p>Hmm, I write for news at the 5-cs, and I actually wrote an article comparing tuition increases at the Claremont Colleges a while back, so I was able to talk to financial aid and the treasurer of the college about some of this. I don’t have the letter Eternal Icicle mentioned with me on hand either, but basically Scripps’ endowment did decline, but the school is funded mostly by other sources of revenue, with a large portion being tuition. That said, I think the large gift by an anonymous donor at the beginning of the year helped to subside Scripps’ financial difficulties when it came to tuition and scholarships. There have been student complaints about the financial aid office in the past, but I think the office is making a genuine effort to get in touch with students more, which is a step in the right direction. </p>
<p>Link to the article, if you’re interested. [Tuition</a> Increases at the 5Cs](<a href=“The Student Life - Claremont Colleges News”>http://www.tsl.pomona.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142:tuition-increases-at-the-5cs&catid=1:articles&Itemid=2)</p>
<p>I haven’t heard anything about Scripps adding a new department, but I have heard of interest in a 5-c Creative Writing program, which I really hope happens because the creative writing program right now is pretty weak. The colleges in general plan to hire new faculty for the Environmental Analysis program, which is headed by a professor at Pomona. Scripps has hired a number of new professors for next year, but mainly to replace professors going on sabbatical.</p>
<p>The new department is part of the 10-year plan under academics. At least it was last semester when I was working on it, and Weiss talked about it a few weeks ago in a speech he gave about Bettison-Varga.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for the link!</p>