So today a Harvard alum gave the school $400 million. And he's only like 113th on the Forbes list of the wealthiest with about $13 billion in wealth. I was pleasantly surprised to read a number of high profile folks question this gift.
Remember, I'm the dude that called out Dr. Dre in the LA Times of all places for giving $35 million to USC, a school with a multi-billion dollar endowment. I mean, anyone part of a group whose first name is the N word shouldn't really give their money to a school with few Black folks, should it?
Anyway, here is the Harvard gift based on some other numbers:
1. The $400 million one time gift eclipses the endowment of every HBCU except Howard.
2. The gift is more than half of Puffy's entire net worth ($700M), and just about as much as Jay-Z's and Dr. Dre's (about $500M each).
3. The gift is 20 times the largest gift given to an HBCU- $20 million in 1988 by the Cosbys to Spelman. Almost 30 years later, this is still the record. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/us/a-black-college-gets-cosby-gift-of-20-million.html
4. The Cosby gift increased Spelman's endowment by 50%! The $400 million gift today increases Harvard's endowment by about 1.5% (ONE POINT FIVE since the endowment is over $30 BILLION). $400 million would increase my endowment by about 550%.
5. The gift is supposed to be for financial aid and scholarships. 10% of the Harvard student body is Pell eligible (roughly from families earning less than $40K per year). 80% of the Dillard student body is Pell eligible.
6. According to the Harvard Crimson, the median household income of Harvard freshmen last year was $125K. In the real America, median household income is $50K. In Mitt Romney terms, 14% of Harvard students ARE the 1%. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/9/4/freshman-survey-admissions-aid/?page=single
7. The average family income at Dillard is about $31K.
8. If I placed $400M in an endowment and only spent 5% annually ($20M), I could pay the tuition and fees of EVERY Dillard student enrolled last year - plus 30 more.
Using the same spending rate, I could do full ride scholarships (I mean everything) for 55% of the student body.
Just something to think about...
The Prez
