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Another Highlight

Getting Out the Student Vote


The National Campus Voter Registration Project aims to turn out college students in record numbers on Election Day. For more information, read the news release or go directly to the Your Vote Your Voice website. 



Together We Can


Click here to view Together We Can, NAICU's policy "quick-take," which was sent to all 2008 presidential candidates, along with this accompanying letter.

Private Colleges Fight Sticker Shock


Replacing loans with grants, cutting tuition, guaranteeing no price increases, and more. Responding to consumer needs, private colleges are redoubling efforts to stay affordable and accessible. Download our compendium of innovative efforts (last updated June 12) to see examples of these initiatives. See our news release for NAICU's perspective on this accelerating national trend.

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NAICU's University & College Accountability Network

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News items, features, and opinion pieces posted on this site from sources outside NAICU do not necessarily reflect the position of the association and its members.  Rather, this content reflects the diversity of issues and opinions that are shaping American higher education.

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Massachusetts Looks at Nation's First Endowment Tax

NAICU Washington Update


May 13, 2008


Desperate to fill a budget gap, the Massachusetts legislature is considering a college endowment tax. The proposal, believed to be unprecedented in the United States, would apply to institutions with endowments larger than $1 billion. While the first $1 billion of an endowment would be exempt, anything above that would be subject to a 2.5 percent levy.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives did not approve the measure, but did vote to ask the state's Department of Revenue to study the proposal. The proposal comes at a time when many states are struggling to balance budgets, and endowment spending patterns have come under intense scrutiny from the Senate Finance Committee.

"There are only 45 private colleges and universities in the United States with endowments greater than $1 billion, while the remaining 1,555 independent institutions have a median endowment of just $14 million," said NAICU President David L. Warren. "Nevertheless, government proposals that undermine the rights of donors as well as the financial independence of any institution and its students are of grave concern to all of private higher education."

In recent days, the Massachusetts measure has come under attack by the news media. The Boston Globe, in an editorial titled "How to strangle an economy," argued that a "tax of this magnitude on the state's universities and colleges would be economic suicide" and is an "ill-conceived money grab that ignores how vital higher education is to the local economy." A Berkshire Eagle editorial ("Dubious endowment plan") noted the negative effect the tax would have on donors' motivation to give, and that in cases like Williams College, institutions already contribute to public coffers and serve their communities in many ways.

Also making the opinion pages last week was the Senate Finance Committee's proposal to force colleges and universities to spend 5 percent of their endowment a year. Wall Street Journal columnist Collin Levy ("The Taxman Cometh") noted that the requirement "would cause serious problems, requiring annual spending at the expense of a school's ability to save for bigger undertakings."


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