re: Our endowment is pathetic compared with the rest of the SEC

Thread Hijack, but:

Did a Google search on the subject, and look at what I found.

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Scroll down a bit. How the hell does that get on Google so fast?

I am starting to think Google is a government front for internet surviellence.

TAF is a 501c3, meaning its the "third way" of fundraising and paying for such things as an athletic department and scholarships and what not. It essentially functions as a private, not-for-profit.

Is anyone else having trouble admitting we are not very "well-endowed"?

Here's how it works:

LSU's endowment is managed by the LSU Foundation. LSU's endowment is invested by the Foundation, and the return on that investment is used to fund LSU. The LSU Foundation's annual report at the end of the '06-'07 fiscal year lists LSU's endowment at $338 million, with total assets (endowed plus non-endowed assets) at $500 million.

The LSU Foundation has been around since the 1960's, but it was a very small organization until recent years. It can be said that LSU did not get "serious" about private fundraising for our university until about 1996. Other schools across the country have been building their endowments, in some cases, for more than 100 years. That's why you see so many schools with larger endowments than LSU, even in the SEC.

The LSU Foundation, the LSU Alumni Association and TAF have teamed up to create the Forever LSU Campaign, which you have heard about in the last few years. The Forever LSU Campaign is simply LSU's goal of raising $750 million for LSU by the end of the year 2010. Any contribution to the LSU Foundation, the Alumni Association, TAF or LSU itself counts toward this goal.

It doesn't matter which entity you give to... it all counts. Academics and athletics gifts count toward the campaign goal. Endowed gifts and non-endowed gifts count toward the goal.

The $750 million isn't collected THEN distributed. It's just a running total of giving to LSU's three fundraising organizations and LSU from 2001 to 2010. If that total meets $750 million, then LSU's met the goal.

What you will likely see by 2010 is that LSU's endowment will be close to $500 million, with total assets at a higher level as well. Non-endowed gifts will be spent on campus improvements like a new business building, etc.

LSU's big challenge when it comes to fundraising is convincing all of LSU's "people" that private fundraising is the norm among colleges and universities in the U.S. You're expected to give back. For a long time, LSU didn't ask people to give back. They just relied on the state to do all of their funding. LSU... and its alumni got used to that philosophy. But LSU can't survive anymore with that funding strategy. See the condition of campus about 1992 or 1993 and you'll understand what I mean.

The bottom line is that just as LSU was a sleeping giant in athletics... it's a sleeping giant in academics, too. You've seen what happens when private fundraising gets involved in athletics. You're about to see that transformation in academics. It will take a long time to do it... but how well we do this determines the future dominance or submission of our university against its competitors.

So... give to LSU!!

The University of Louisiana System fricks up LSU. Doesn't Louisiana have just as many universities as Florida even though they have like 6 times the population. Louisiana has WAY too many major universities.

I've asked this before on here. Are LSU alums poor, miserly or apathetic towards the University? It seems that we lag behind in endowment, scholarship funds, donations, etc. as compared to our peers. I think the "Forever LSU" campaign is great and seems to be going well, but it just seems that LSU lacks the very wealthy benefactors that other schools have in abundance. Of course we do have the Pennington's and Lod Cook, etc. who have put up some big bucks, but they seem to be few and far between in comparison.

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Thursday, February 19th, 2008

Salt Lake City, Utah

With spring approaching, I have been looking for a good week to head out west, visit several relatives including one of my daughters, and ski some Utah mountains. This is the week. Let me share a Louisiana perspective.



A 6:30 a.m. flight out of Baton Rouge found only a few travelers lining up for security checks at that early hour. But TSA (Transportation Security Administration) employees were in abundance. Now I don't know about you, but I sure started feeling a whole lot safer as those security guards began taking shampoo away from two older ladies in front of me, and toothpaste away from some little kid about seven years old. Thank goodness, this competent federal agency has found a way to foil the terrorists.



You almost have to take a course to figure out all the new rules. Let's see now, you can have up to 3 ounces of toothpaste, but it has to be packed in a clear, one-quart-size baggy. If your baggy is a two quarter, then you are just out of luck. And how about 2 ounces of perfume in a five-ounce bottle? Sorry. You broke the rules.



So here is a question I wish one of these screeners would answer. Why do little old ladies get the same search treatment as a young Arab? Let's be candid here. It's ridiculous to target everyone equally, because each person going through security at the airport is not posing the same potential threat. As Canadian columnist Rachel Marsden puts it: "across-the-board rules make sense if the Golden girls were blowing up airplanes. Since they're not, this kind of mindless "equality" is not just dumb. It's dangerous."



Of course we should be profiling, politically correct or not. Smart security regulations play the odds. The Republican congressman Peter King summed it up pretty well when he said: If the IRA had blown up Lower Manhattan, then people with Irish names and red hair and freckles should be stopped more than an African-American or an Italian-American. It makes no sense frisking 80-year-old women and allowing others to walk through without being stopped. If you want to call it profiling or more intelligent screening, yes, it has to be done and it should be done."



As I walked onto the line, three different screeners, all within 20 feet of each other, asked to see my ticket. Since there are more screeners than passengers, I suppose it kept all the federal employees occupied. In fairness, those doing the searching were polite and just doing their job. But the higher ups have created a bloated bureaucracy and instituted arbitrary rules that are both burdensome and ineffective. So I worked my way through the line, took off my shoes and belt, took off my coat and sweater, emptied my pockets, disengaged my laptop from its case, then reassembled everything and moved on to find a cup of coffee before my flight.



Joining me on the flight was the new and controversial president of the LSU system, Dr. John Lombardi. He was on his way to Minneapolis to speak with representatives of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association.) He was traveling alone, and had no one there to wisk him away from me, and protect him from my ramblings and verbal onslaughts. So I took the time to unload on one of my LSU sore spots; the failure on the part of university officials to raise significant money for the college endowment.



LSU could well have the lowest endowment of any major college of its size in the country. As much as 15 percent of the total amounts spent by major universities to cover costs can often come from its endowment. Income is build up over a number of years by actively encouraging alumni to make regular contributions to a university fund. Successful college endowments grow through investments and are a significant income source for any major university in the country. Not so at LSU.

As you would expect, the nation’s top-rated universities also have the highest endowments. Harvard leads the country with an endowment approaching $26 billion.. That’s some 15 percent higher than last year. A number of state universities have endowments that are significantly above $1 billion. My alma mater, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has topped the $1.5 billion level gaining some 13 percent in one year on investments of new funds into the endowment.

How about the Southeast Conference? The University of Florida comes in strongly at almost $850 million with a 14 percent gain in the last year alone. The University of Alabama has an endowment approaching $800 million. The University of Tennessee system is now at $720 million. How about our backwards friends up in Arkansas to the north? $700 million endowment. The University of Kentucky? $580 million. The University of Georgia comes in at almost $520 million. Any number of smaller southern schools is above this level. So where’s LSU? Just topping the $500 million mark with only a 9.7 percent rise in income within the last year, one of the lowest percentage increases in the country.

Former LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Bernie Boudreaux urged the Legislature last year to give more funding to LSU. He stated flat out: “Our only sources of income are from tuition charged and funds the university receives from the Legislature.” How true, and how disappointing. A strong endowment should be a major “third source” of income for any university that aspires to be a flagship and make a significant difference in its self funding effort. When it comes to developing the endowment potential, LSU has, simply put, been a failure.

Rarely a week goes by when Louisiana papers are not filled with some exploit of a successful LSU graduate, both in the business world as well as the field of sports. Yet it is hard to point to any major effort encouraging these same individuals to be major benefactors to a university that gave them a foundation to be successful in the first place. What a missed opportunity.

NATIONAL RANKINGS – a few months ago, US News and World Report published their annual guide to the nation’s top schools. One would assume that any college that aspires to be a flagship institution and a major university of higher learning would fight to make the nation’s top 100. Tulane University in New Orleans came in at 43. A number of SEC schools are in the top 100. The University of Florida made it in at number 50, Georgia listed at number 58, and both Auburn University and the University of Tennessee tied for 85th. The University of Alabama was listed at number 104, and number 109 was University of South Carolina. No LSU mentioned anywhere on the list. You would have assumed that some member of the Board of Supervisors would have opened up the magazine, and raise a few questions. But nowhere was heard a discouraging word.

To his credit, Dr. Lombardi listened attentively and readily admitted that the University had a lot of ground to make up. But he seems egger to begin revamping the process. I wished him well; he headed for Minneapolis, then on to Las Vegas. More to share next week.

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Hey at least we win at SOMETHING

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Hey, what you guys beat us at is everything but athletics. In reality athletic competition is the least important thing on the agenda of an institution of higher learning. In reality, the SEC sucks, except for Vandy.