Strengthening the endowment

The Tufts Tomorrow fundraising campaign organized by then-President John DiBiaggio in 1995 has far exceeded initial expectations and demonstrates that the University is capable of beefing up its formerly laughable endowment. The current endowment of $677 million is still far below other schools of Tufts' caliber, but it continues to grow at improved rates.

Although endowment alone cannot completely speak to the quality of a school, the two go hand in hand more often than not. Greater endowments allow universities more freedom in retaining great faculty, constructing new facilities, maintaining up-to-date labs and technology resources, and offering ample financial aid packages.

Tufts has only been concerned about building a sizeable endowment for the past 25 years or so, but progress since then has been impressive. Since the last capital campaign concluded a decade ago, Tufts' endowment has grown by over 250 percent. The bull market of the late '90s certainly didn't hurt the capital campaign, but the University should be able to maintain a high level of contributions despite the economy with properly targeted campaigning. President Larry Bacow has demonstrated his dedication to this by travelling often his first year to meet with Tufts alumni and other potential donors across the country.

Bacow says that the number of individual donations during Tufts Tomorrow exceeded the number of living alumni, but many of these contributions came from parents, foundations, and corporations. By far the most disappointing aspect of the Tufts Tomorrow campaign is the lack of donations from alumni graduating after 1985. The University should be diligent in determining exactly why these graduates have not been not willing to donate so that it can quickly correct the situation when dealing with current students _ tomorrow's future donors.

The Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience is a good starting place because it addresses the issue of student contentment with the University. If students graduate after four years of positive experiences with Tufts, they will be far more likely to give back to their alma mater than students who graduate feeling that they got nothing out of their undergraduate years. With a dual focus on improving the University for current students and reaching out effectively to alumni donors, Tufts will inevitably be able to bring its endowment to a satisfactory level