The Tripod

With summer break on the horizon, Trinity's campus has turned into a beehive of activity. Anxiously awaiting the end of the school year and the prospect of summer, students seem to have thrown their cares to the wind. While finals are imminent, they are no more than a small blip on the radar, and who can blame us? Heck, as a Trinity student right now, life is good.

Unfortunately, outside of the proverbial college student bubble, the deepening recession looms large, and its impacts have grown in both severity and scope over the past few months. To make matters worse, the recession's newest victim is our very own Trinity College.

Earlier in the semester I wrote about the availability of need-based financial aid and how, despite our economy's downturn, Trinity had pledged to increase its financial aid budget. What I failed to address, however, was how, in the face of our current budgetary troubles, Trinity was going to afford such an increase in funds. Of course, the funds had to come from somewhere, and, in the midst of a recession, they were not going to be easy to come by.

Recently, The Wall Street Journal elucidated this issue. As reported in the April 23 issue of The Wall Street Journal, Trinity attempted to dip into restricted endowment funds in order to provide international students with financial aid. Set aside to create a Professorship of American Business and Economic Enterprise, the targeted funds had been provided by the late Shelby Cullom Davis in 1976, when they were valued at $750,000. Today, the benefaction is worth $9 million.

Trinity's Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of Business, Gerald Gunderson, whose position was created out of this gift, met this proposal with vehement opposition. Professor Gunderson believes that this particular fund was dipped into due to his conservative views. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Gunderson says he suspects that liberal academics at Trinity have blocked these plans and have little interest in Mr. Davis's vision," Mr. Gunderson himself said, "They are undercutting not just my program … they are undercutting my view of the world, too." Mr. Gunderson definitely has a point, and, if I were to judge this situation with purely legalistic criteria, I would have to agree with him. For, when Davis originally bequeathed his donation to Trinity, he explicitly outlined its intended usage. Davis said, "It is my wish that the funds and income from the Endowment be used for the various purposes you have described ... and for no other purposes."

But, as President Jones specified, when Davis contributed the money to Trinity, it was worth a small fraction of its current value (in real dollars, adjusted for inflation). Moreover, its intended usage, to create the Shelby Cullom Davis Professorship of American Business and Economic Enterprise, had been fulfilled.

With the coming of this persistent recession, President Jones felt that using some of the $9 million endowment for financial aid was both permissible and necessary, presumably to preserve the academic quality of Trinity. After all, there is no question that the amount of money we spend on financial aid directly correlates to our school's academic quality and future as a competitive institution.

Unfortunately, it seems that the recession has forced Trinity into a bind. For, while both President Jones and Professor Gunderson have reasonable concerns, outside circumstances have made it so that only one of these sides can be appeased.

At this point, our school must prioritize its goals. Which is more important, the practice of unyielding loyalty, or the preservation of academic quality? Honestly, I can't answer this question. But, judging by his generosity and professed love for Trinity, I think I can guess where Davis himself would stand on this issue.

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