<p>Here is the best part of the future effect of the 4 billion dollar campaign:</p>
<p>"The university's highest priority is to raise funds for student support so that every student accepted by the university can afford to attend, so that the university can attract students who can compete at the highest levels, and so that every student can have an outstanding student experience. The goal for that priority is $1 billion."</p>
<p>Please. Even if they just stick it in treasuries, the earnings alone on their $8.4B endowment are enough to cover cost of attendance for every UMich student. And now they have a hand out for billions more?</p>
<p>“And now they have a hand out for billions more?”</p>
<p>Of course. All world class universities rely on private donations to maintain their strength. Michigan has a very large OOS student population that pays top dollar to attend in most cases. The university wants to be able attract top students and not lose them to others, often lesser schools, who give away free rides.</p>
<p>Chardo, Harvard’s endowment is over $30 billion, and they have an undergraduate population 4 times smaller than Michigan’s, and even they cannot afford to cover the cost of attendance for all their students. As Barrons points out, endowments are not entirely dedicated to financial aid. In fact, only a small fraction of any university’s endowment is dedicated to financial aid. This new campaign is partly aiming at improving Michigan’s financial aid offerings.</p>
<p>Remember Chardo, a university like Michigan has huge costs of operations, such as facilities construction and maintenance. If Michigan (and other universities) were a for-profit organization that gave its employees huge salaries and bonuses, I would definitely question the need for further development of endowment. But Michigan is a non-profit institution, and its employees are paid fair market value salaries.</p>
<p>The fundraising makes sense as funding from the state of MI has decreased over recent years.</p>
<p>Per UM website “in the 1960s, state funding made up 80 percent of the U-M’s general fund budget – the budget that pays for the university’s core academic programs. In the coming year, the state appropriation will drop to less than 17 percent of the general fund budget.”</p>
<p>^^^You are correct happy1. Many years ago Michigan realized that they could not count on the state to provide enough funding to maintain its excellence.</p>