Chronicle - As Fiscal Year Ends, Big Questions Loom for Colleges' Financial Futures

Will the stock market close on a high note tomorrow, the last day of the fiscal year for most colleges? Will that last big gift come in before the books close?

While the end-of-fiscal-year value of a college's net assets is just one indicator of the institution's overall health, it's an important one. If the value falls too low relative to debt, bondholders could find the institution in default on covenants and demand repayment. [Read More]

Both Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service have noted the deterioration of college finances over the past several months and say they expect the difficult financial conditions to continue through 2012. [Read More]

As the economy worsened over the past year, more than 40 states made midyear cuts totaling nearly $60-billion, according to figures from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.[Read More]

Colleges Should Start Planning Now for Net Price Calculators

College officials need to begin planning now to comply with a new federal requirement that they post on their Web sites within roughly two years the net price to attend their institutions, panelists said at a meeting of institutional researchers here this week. 'This is going to end up being more complex as you get into it than people realize,' Mary M. Sapp, assistant vice president for planning and institutional research at the University of Miami, told members of the Association for Institutional Research. Congress mandated the new feature last year to give prospective students a clear idea of the actual cost to attend each institution. The net figure will be derived from total cost - tuition, fees, room, board, and other expenses - minus average aid from all sources of grants (but not loans). [Read More (Subscription Required)]

Think Ahead LLC, a developer of college financial planning software, had developed a White Paper on the Net Price Calculators, available here.

Chronicle - Giving to Colleges Declines Nearly 6 Percent

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that giving to colleges and other charities declined by nearly 6 percent, the steepest decline in the history of the survey which began in 1956. Below are some highlights, please visit the website for more details.

• Individuals donated $229.3-billion last year, a decrease of 6.3 percent. Giving through bequests also dropped: $22.7-billion was contributed through people’s wills, a 6.4-percent decline. Altogether, gifts from individuals, including bequests, accounted for 82 percent of all charitable giving in 2008.


• Corporate donations totaled $14.5-billion in 2008, an 8-percent decrease, accounting for 5 percent of all giving.


• Foundation grants decreased only slightly, 0.8 percent. They totaled $41.2-billion. Grants from private, community, and operating foundations made up 13 percent of the total contributed to charity last year.