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Student Response to ABC
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In the March 26 issue of the Maroon-News, editor Andrew Wickerham provide his perspective on the ABC campaign in a column titled, "Off-Campus, Off-Base." He writes, "...there seems to be a lot of misdirected, and in some cases unfounded, alumni concern flying around out there. I think a healthy amount of alumni involvement in a school is a great thing, but when that participation starts to stymie progress, priorities need to be readjusted." read more...
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Alumni Response to ABC
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Read a Maroon-News column titled "A Better Colgate: Change for the worse" by (then) Alumni Council President Ron Joyce '73
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The leadership of A Better Colgate (ABC) continues to produce and distribute newsletters that not only mislead but also contain a number of misstatements presented as fact. The most recent such newsletter was distributed in Sept. 2009. Over the years as those affiliated with ABC and its predecessor SA4C have made misleading assertions, Colgate has responded with context and corrections around the important issues. We do so again here, but note that it is particularly troubling that there continue to be so many misstatements of fact and an absence of anything positive to say about the state of the university. This is a time when the power of our community and the shared Colgate bond are more important than ever. We will accomplish far more as a university community by working together than we will through negativity and misinformation.
A Colgate education and the lifelong relationships the university seeks to foster with its alumni are based in critical thinking, a robust exchange of ideas, and respectful dialogue. Colgate trustees have met with ABC representatives with the hope of fostering a productive, respectful dialogue. Unfortunately, the continued tactics being employed demonstrate that, in spite of efforts to reach out, ABC has chosen to continue its campaign of misinformation.
We will continue to correct misstatements of fact and provide context around issues of importance. In spite of the inaccuracies and the tone of ABC’s missives, Colgate is an extraordinarily healthy, vibrant, and exciting place. We invite those who are concerned about the state of the college to reach out and talk with a student or a member of the faculty. They, after all, are experiencing Colgate every day and are best suited to know whether the experience is properly aligned with the university’s traditions and aspirations as a leading liberal arts university. Or, better yet, we invite all alumni to make a trip to campus to walk through the new science center and library and visit downtown Hamilton. Talk with a student, faculty member, or local resident. This is the only way to truly get a sense for what is going on at Colgate and appreciate the positive and productive climate on campus.
ABC states: The cost to attend in 2009-10 ranges from $52,880 to $54,169, depending on housing and meal plan. Colgate is among the most expensive universities in the nation for an undergraduate degree.
Fact: The figures ABC cites are misleading. Colgate’s total student charges for the current academic year are $50,940. This amount represents the compulsory charges to be enrolled at Colgate for a first-year student, which is how all schools report their “sticker price.” This amount is comprised of tuition ($40,690), student activity fee ($280), room in a traditional residence hall ($4,815) and a full meal plan ($5,155). The amounts cited by ABC appear to include allowances for books and travel which are fully considered by Colgate when providing financial aid to a student.
Based on information gathered from the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS), Colgate’s total student charges is the 17th highest in the nation in 2009-10. Total student charges are very tightly bunched for all top colleges and universities. For example, if Colgate’s charges were $112 lower, it would fall out of the top 20 most expensive schools. It is also true that Colgate competes on a variety of planes with the most prestigious institutions in the nation, all of which have significantly larger endowments – even with the losses incurred over the past year – from which they can draw to support their operating budget. Colgate manages to stay competitive with these institutions academically while keeping student charges within range thanks to a leaner operation and effective stewardship of university resources.
Additionally, it is important to note that, for the current year, Colgate’s tuition increase was 3.6%, the third-lowest increase in 30 years and below the national average for private colleges, which was 4.3% and below the average increase for top 25 liberal arts colleges (USN&WR), which was 4.0%.
ABC states: From 2003 to 2009, students receiving financial aid dropped from 43% to 37%; 63% of students pay full fare.
Fact: The 2003 number is being presented as the norm, but it is actually an outlier as that is the year in which Colgate experimented with admitting students on a need-blind basis, resulting in a higher than normal percentage of students receiving aid. The experiment was limited to one year because the university does not have the endowment to support such a policy in the long-run, though getting the university closer to a need-blind situation is a driving force behind Colgate’s fundraising goal for endowed financial aid.
Additional points that ABC failed to mention:
- The percentage ABC uses for 2009 is incorrect. The correct number is 38.5%.
- This percent of students on aid for the fall semester of this year is 40.3%.
- Colgate’s financial aid budget has been increased by $2 million this year.
- Thanks to the tremendous generosity of Colgate’s donors who have been incredibly supportive in providing gifts to financial aid endowment, Colgate has been able to increase the number of financial aid packages it provides to incoming classes and we are committed to continuing to increase the number of students who we can aid.
- While Colgate seeks to drive the percentage of aided students as high as is possible given the amount available for aid, not every student who is offered an aid package actually enrolls. This can often lead to a lower percentage of students on aid than projected.
- Other schools “gap” students with their aid packages, meaning that they will offer a student a percentage of the aid they will need to enroll and leave them to fill the gap with personal loans. Colgate’s long-standing aid policies do not put students and their families in this difficult position. Colgate meets the full demonstrated financial need for every enrolled student. This means that a student whose financial status changes for the worse while on campus will not have to leave because he or she can’t pay the bills.
ABC states: In 54 Board of Trustees meetings from 1996 through 2008, there is only one recorded vote cast in opposition by a single trustee.
Fact: This is not unusual in a deliberative model of governance such as the one in place at Colgate. Issues are not simply put in front of the board and then voted on. Rather, board committees consider issues, research potential solutions and come to consensus on a solution before a proposal is brought to vote. This ensures that all voices are heard, often resulting in a stronger solution thanks to the amount of conversation that occurs during the process.
This process is facilitated through the trustee meeting schedule, which goes well beyond the four on-campus meetings held each year. Formative committee work is done in separate meetings; some committees, such as Endowment Management and Finance or Capital Assets, meet as frequently as 12 to 15 times a year.
ABC states: The Case Library cost $60 million and was nearly 50% over budget and two years behind schedule.
Fact: ABC communications have often cited figures associated with Colgate’s library project, frequently ignoring economic trends that were impacting the construction industry while the project was underway. ABC criticisms of this building also ignore the most important aspect of the project – in the end, they were done right. Students and faculty agree that the new library has significantly improved the learning environment on campus, adding space for collaboration, teaching, and research. Colgate cannot afford to cut corners when it comes to supporting academics.
The gap between original cost ($43.5 million) and final cost ($60 million) is significant, and was the result of:
- Construction cost and materials inflation unexpectedly rose by 9.35% in 2004 and by roughly 5.0% annually in 2005 and 2006. This inflation followed a five-year period in which construction costs increased at an annual average of 1.9%. We estimate that inflation added roughly $6.0 to $7.0 million to the project budget.
- Cost increases were also caused by issues encountered with one of the key subcontractors on the job, unforeseen conditions in a very difficult to renovate structure, along with design difficulties. These problems were significant and Colgate has pursued cost recoveries associated with the project.
- One action which resulted from this process was the reorganization of Colgate’s administrative structure, primarily the merging of the administrative and financial divisions, in part to more effectively manage construction costs.
ABC states: From 2003 to 2009, donor participation has fallen 22%.
Fact: This isn’t true. In 2003, thanks to a significant challenge put forth by Colgate Trustee Dan Benton ’80, Colgate’s alumni giving rate reached an all-time high and has since fallen about 9% to the current rate.
Additional points ABC failed to mention:
- This past year, in the wake of the economic downturn, Colgate was one of only a handful of schools to either hold the line or increase its alumni giving rate.
- Colgate has to add about 400 new donors each year just to hold the alumni giving rate steady. This is because today’s classes are much larger than the oldest Colgate classes.
ABC states: Many prestigious universities, such as Amherst, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Oberlin, Princeton, Wesleyan and Yale honor the right of alumni to vote in a direct election for a meaningful number of trustees.
Fact: There are a number of problems with this statement by ABC.
- A Better Colgate continues to cite the processes at other “prestigious” universities, but fails to provide both information on how their processes work and how they would serve Colgate better, beyond the implication that these institutions are somehow “better” and, by being like them, Colgate would be made better.
o Specifically, ABC continues to make the incorrect comparison with Harvard’s Board of Overseers, which does have alumni elections, but is not their governing board (that is the Harvard University President and Fellows). Harvard’s Overseers is their version of Colgate’s Alumni Council.
- While ABC doesn’t state what a “meaningful number of trustees” might be, they continue to dismiss the role of Alumni Trustees on the board, the six trustees who are nominated by the Alumni Council to serve on the board.
o Alumni Trustees, who make up 16% of Colgate’s entire board, are selected for their distinguished service on the Alumni Council and their ability to provide general alumni perspective and facilitate communication between the Board and alumni. As you know, alumni who serve on the Alumni Council have distinguished themselves through long histories of volunteering, giving back, and remaining engaged with campus over a long period of time. Biographies of Alumni Council nominees are publicized each year through the Scene and the Colgate Alumni website and the slate is later run for approval in the Scene.
ABC states: US News & World Report has ranked Colgate University at a new low of 19, down from 15 in 2006.
Fact: It is true that Colgate holds the 19th spot in the current US News guide but if ABC is trying to make the case that this somehow reflects on the university’s position in higher education, they once again missed the point. Colgate actually gained a spot in the academic reputation ranking. Colgate’s recent drop in the rankings is due to a combination of factors, including:
- Over the last decate, Colgate’s ranking has varied between a high of 15 and a low of 21 (in 1999). In that time the US News has added Harvey Mudd, the US Military Academy and Naval Academy to the schools in the liberal arts category. Because so much of the rankings formula is based on institutional wealth, and because Harvey Mudd and the academies have significant resources, the rankings tilt in their favor.
- Again, because the rankings are heavily determined by institutional wealth, Colgate is at a significant disadvantage relative to our more heavily endowed peers, most of which also have smaller student bodies. This combination has a doubly negative effect on our relative endowment per student position.
ABC states: Colgate earned an F from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni in its report card of the country’s top 100 universities. Of the seven areas identified as integral to a robust core curriculum, Colgate requires only a foreign language credit. Compare schools and learn more at whatwilltheylearn.com.
Fact: The ACTA “report card” must be put into context. Firstly, the group promotes the work it did to help launch SA4C, the predecessor to ABC, and states that, “Over the years, ACTA has provided ongoing advice on the content of their alumni website, curricular studies, and alumni mailings.” This alone makes it hard to view their ratings as unbiased. http://www.goacta.org/programs/AlumniGroups.cfm
In terms of their “analysis” of Colgate’s core, ACTA uses very narrow criteria that don’t fully account for a college’s approach to core education and distribution requirements. In fact, Colgate is unusual in having maintained the strong general education requirements that our alums well remember. Other colleges that received an F on the report card include: Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Cornell, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Middlebury, Rice, Smith, Swarthmore, the University of California-Berkeley, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, Wesleyan, Williams and Yale.
ABC states: None of Colgate’s 35 trustees are chosen through an open election. Currently, four are non-alumni/ae. The Nominating Committee is comprised of five trustees, one student and one faculty member, who is elected by his or her peers. A quorum is four people. The Nominating Committee, in secret meetings, determines who will be placed on a slate, which the Board of Trustees always approves.
Fact: Nominations for board membership are open to all alumni and the turnover of board members requires a steady flow of nominations. Over the course of any given three-year period, about one-third of Colgate's 35-member board turns over. This keeps the board fresh, and ensures a diversity of perspectives and opinions. The great majority – currently 90% - of Colgate board members are alumni of the university. The non-alumni members include the university’s president and parents of Colgate students, who have a significant stake in the effective current management of the university
Corrections and context around previous ABC newsletters
ABC states: Colgate is the fifth most expensive college in America
Fact: Not true. Colgate's total student charges are within range of the university's peers, but nearly 20 schools are ahead of Colgate in terms of charges. Click here to see the listing. This is particularly noteworthy given that Colgate is under-endowed compared with its peers, which means that Colgate must be more efficient with its operations just to compete in terms of quality and cost.
ABC states: Colgate's 2,750 students have 674 different majors
Fact: A simple review of Colgate's website or a careful review of education-related databases would make it clear that Colgate has 51 majors, not 674 (as the chart ABC carelessly references clearly states, this is the number of students who completed a major in 2007-2008).
ABC states: New jobs at Colgate-are they fiscally prudent now?
Fact: ABC lists new positions but chose not to mention that several other positions have been restructured to create these "new" jobs. It is true that Colgate’s staff has grown in recent years, but this growth has both been in line with the university’s strategic initiatives and in line with the university’s peers. Additionally, in response to the economic downturn, the university has implemented a freeze on hiring and is reviewing all positions as they come open.
ABC states: The ratio of students to everyone on the Colgate payroll is three to one.
Fact: ABC opens its newsletter with this inaccuracy but later presents the true figure, which is a ratio of one staff member for every five students. To put this number in context of the university's peers, Colgate has fewer staff per student than any of the colleges cited in the ABC newsletter. Click here to see a chart comparing Colgate's staff to peers.
ABC states: 6 new staff members have been hired to produce The Colgate Scene
Fact: The redesigned Colgate Scene, introduced in the Fall of 2008, is being produced by the same staff, using the same budget as the previous format. No new staff have been hired.
ABC states: Colgate Professors Don’t Earn the Most, but Outpace the Average by 20%
Fact: When compared with the peer institutions that ABC listed in their newsletter, average faculty salaries at Colgate are comparable, if not slightly below the average. Average faculty salaries at the 14 institutions A Better Colgate cites on page 1 – Yale, Wellesley, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Tufts, Colby, Smith, Hamilton, Davidson, Haverford and Colorado College – range from $111,552 to $165,131 and average $123,683.50. As noted in ABC’s newsletter, the average salary for a full-time professor who has achieved the highest rank at Colgate is $120,322.
On Board Governance
The ABC newsletter spends a great amount of space trying to make a case for direct election of a majority of Colgate's trustees. In doing so, ABC leadership fails to recognize the fact that Colgate's current system of governance has served the institution well for generations and is aligned with best practices in higher education.
ABC works to position Colgate as an outlier in its practices and provides no way for alumni have their voice heard in board member nomination and development. In fact, nominations for board membership are open to all alumni and board six seats are reserved for members nominated through the Alumni Council. This is the same process used by both Middlebury and Williams colleges, both of which are listed as models by ABC. These colleges, ranked number 1 and 5 among liberal arts colleges by U.S. News, also have top annual giving participation rates, 60% and 58%.
In addition, ABC cites the model used by Harvard’s Board of Overseers, which is not their governing board (that is the Harvard University President and Fellows). Harvard’s Overseers is their version of Colgate’s Alumni Council. This is not the first time ABC has attempted to make this incorrect comparison and, although they have been corrected, they continue to make these misleading statements.
Colgate’s board is recognized for its effectiveness and devotion to excellence
In affirming Colgate’s accreditation as a member of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, an independent external review team of faculty and administrators from leading institutions of higher education wrote that “Colgate University has a well-defined, formalized governance structure” and that “Colgate has assembled an effective Board of Trustees who value the rich legacy of the University and who are deeply devoted to its ongoing commitment to excellence.”
The team also noted that the board is “passionate about the mission of Colgate and committed to strong fiduciary oversight and philanthropic support” and wrote that “the team commends the leadership of the University, at all levels, but particularly the President and the Board, for achieving a high level of institutional health.” Colgate was one of only nine institutions nationally to be commended in the accreditation process.
Colgate’s 35 trustees (31 of whom are alumni) routinely dedicate hundreds of hours to their service each year through committee work, meeting with faculty, students, and alumni, assisting with fundraising, admission and advocacy for Colgate, among other duties.