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Hayk Yengibaryan and Christopher Bao
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: In his annual State of the University letter published on Jan. 29, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 defended the University’s endowment, its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and institutional restraint. Though his letter does not, according to him, address the recent orders and policies from the Trump administration targeting universities, much of what Eisgruber wrote addressed attacks on higher education in recent years.
Princetonians for Free Speech
Since the beginning of the year, Princetonians for Free Speech has been warning that Princeton and other universities were likely to be hit with a big increase in the current 1.4 % tax on endowment income. Now it is happening.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, the House Ways & Means Committee voted to report out its part of the Reconciliation bill – a.k.a. the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This massive bill contains numerous tax provisions, including a large increase in the tax rate, now 1.4%, on endowment income. The bill creates a tiered tax rate based on an institution’s “student-adjusted” endowment. There are four rates: 1.4%, 7%, 14%, and 21%. The 21% rate applies to schools with an endowment of at least $2 million per student. It is the same as the corporate tax rate. Princeton qualifies for the 21%. According to one article, others qualifying for the highest rate are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and MIT. Here is a list of the largest endowments. Princeton is listed at $34 billion. Note that Texas, which has a large endowment, is not covered by the endowment tax because it is a public university.
Christopher Bao and Annie Rupertus
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: Princeton asked all departments and University units to prepare “separate plans for 5 percent and 10 percent permanent budget cuts to be phased in over the next three years, with some actions to start later this summer” in an email sent to faculty and staff on Monday afternoon — the University’s most dramatic budgetary guidance yet following a tumultuous semester for higher education.
The email, sent by Provost Jennifer Rexford and Executive Vice President Katie Callow-Wright, explicitly acknowledged the potential for layoffs to be part of budget reductions. “Cuts of this magnitude to our budget cannot be achieved without changes to some operations and the associated elimination of some staff positions,” they wrote.
David Montgomery ‘83
Princeton Alumni Weekly
Excerpt: For the first time in memory, Princeton is inviting alumni, faculty, students, and allies to lend their voices to a broad campaign of political advocacy and public affirmation in response to the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on research funding and academic freedom in American higher education. “To my knowledge, this is a new kind of initiative for the University,” President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 told PAW in an early May interview about the campaign, which is called “Stand Up for Princeton and Higher Education.”
Dennis Doherty
February 07, 2025
I continue to be amazed that Princeton is sitting on a $34.1B endowment fund while arguing in favor of taxpayer-funded student loan relief. In a previous note in the Alumni magazine, President Eisgruber lamented the lack of support for taxpayer-funded relief of student loan debt for those who had not finished their degree programs.
IMHO, Princeton has been part and parcel of the abuse of the well-intended student loan program which enriched both the banks and the universities. It was intended to enable more students to be able to manage the costs of higher education but, along with the increased demand came increased tuition, a windfall for Princeton among others. I guess that’s just capitalism – it’s a business. And the down side of that was that in many cases, young people cam out with degrees that would not lead to career paths that would easily enable them to repay those loans – a reflection on the poor quality of student advisement while young and frequently uninformed students took on a financial burden in many cases comparable to a house mortgage.
And then to argue that the taxpayers should bear this burden! While Princeton sits on a $34.1B endowment! I am stunned at the audacity of demanding carpenters, plumbers, laborers, etc., pick up the bill for Princeton’s greed!
Again, IMHO, the students do indeed deserve student loan debt relief – but at the cost of the banks and universities that abused such a well-intentioned program.