This paragraph is a brilliant call to action and cuts to the heart of the issue.

This paragraph is a brilliant call to action and cuts to the heart of the issue.

I disagree that that is the only thing we ought to care about, but surely we can both agree that the current system which doesn’t tell us anything about how our endowment is doing isn’t very helpful. High performing? Low performing? No way to tell, we just get to take the administration’s word for it. Say what you will about enviromentalism/sustainability, a poorly invested endowment has real impact about the long term stability of the school.

@Josh

There are a wide variety of ways that CMC could make it’s endowment more transparent. What this article correctly points out is that CMC got an F in endowment transparency: “The college has no known policy of disclosure of endowment holdings or shareholder voting records.” Take a look at the specific page that my name is linked to. Colleges across the country have found ways to maintain confidentiality while still offering some transparency to students and faculty. And it’s hard to see how Amherst or Swarthmore’s endowment has suffered because of public disclosure. Bottom line, we can’t evaluate Cardoza’s performance without actually being able to see where we are invested and what is happening. Throwing up our hands as a college community and saying that the administration will make sure our endowment prospers is naive at best and negligent at worst.

For a campus so heavily focused on accounting practices and leadership, recieving an F in endowment transparency speaks to how unengaged we are as a school to the single most important campus issue.

I disagree that that is the only thing we ought to care about, but surely we can both agree that the current system which doesn’t tell us anything about how our endowment is doing isn’t very helpful. High performing? Low performing? No way to tell, we just get to take the administration’s word for it. Say what you will about enviromentalism/sustainability, a poorly invested endowment has real impact about the long term stability of the school.

@Josh

There are a wide variety of ways that CMC could make it’s endowment more transparent. What this article correctly points out is that CMC got an F in endowment transparency: “The college has no known policy of disclosure of endowment holdings or shareholder voting records.” Take a look at the specific page that my name is linked to. Colleges across the country have found ways to maintain confidentiality while still offering some transparency to students and faculty. And it’s hard to see how Amherst or Swarthmore’s endowment has suffered because of public disclosure. Bottom line, we can’t evaluate Cardoza’s performance without actually being able to see where we are invested and what is happening. Throwing up our hands as a college community and saying that the administration will make sure our endowment prospers is naive at best and negligent at worst.

For a campus so heavily focused on accounting practices and leadership, recieving an F in endowment transparency speaks to how unengaged we are as a school to the single most important campus issue.

It might be helpful for students to know something about the endowment, however. In ’99, our endowment was within a hundred million dollars or so of Pomona’s endowment. Our CIO, Joe Cardoza (who still has his job), and Trustees made some decisions that led to a huge collapse in the value of our endowment, while Pomona shot ahead to over a billion dollars.

It might be helpful for students to know something about the endowment, however. In ’99, our endowment was within a hundred million dollars or so of Pomona’s endowment. Our CIO, Joe Cardoza (who still has his job), and Trustees made some decisions that led to a huge collapse in the value of our endowment, while Pomona shot ahead to over a billion dollars.

Sorry but the only criteria that ought to be assessed on the endowment is whether or not it is high or low performing.

The chairment of the board of trustees, Harry T. McMahon, was the Vice Chairman Merrill Lynch. Think we may have had a little bit of the endowment in Merrill Lynch stock before it was shipped off to Bank of America? Who knows? All I know was that I didn’t see McMahon hoisting a shovel at the ground breaking for the Kravis center. A concerted effort for more transparency of the endowment is only going to be achieved by massive student concern.