In response to: Is the Proposed Endowment Tax Another Cash Grab?
Current issue
July 2025
On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.
On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.
The article on endowments (“Is the Proposed Endowment Tax Another Cash Grab?,” March issue) is not surprising to anyone in academics, but it misses an important objection: the runaway growth of programs, administrators, salaries, and facilities.
In 1972, my stipend as an incoming graduate student was $2,300 annually. The USA CPI calculator equates this to $17,595 today. Graduate students are now paid about $43,000 annually. In 1994-95, Princeton’s operating budget was $525 million. This is equivalent to 1.1 billion today. The current operating budget is approaching $3 billion.
Like any “charity,” no amount of money is ever enough. Princeton is competing to be the best, and other universities are growing faster than inflation, too. But what is the limit to growth?