The power of college endowments

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

Business, News

4.6 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

College endowment funds are at the center of student protester’s calls for their schools to divest from Israel. Charlie Eaton, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, and author of “Bankers in the Ivory Tower,” said the size of these funds have created a moral dilemma for the wealthiest universities. On the show today, Eaton explains how college endowments work, why most universities don’t disclose how those funds are invested, and how colleges could manage their endowments to better align with their values.

Then, we’ll check-in on the youths. And, Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop, the puppet, answer the Make Me Smart question. Plus, a tribute to Jasper.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

- “University endowments show few signs of direct Israel, defense holdings” from The Washington Post

- “If the divestment movement succeeds, will it have an economic impact?” from Marketplace

- “Gaza protests: Divestment from Israel becomes focus of student demands” from The Washington Post

- “Students protest Gaza war: The history of divestment protests” from Marketplace

- “Top companies are on students’ divest list. But does it really work?” from NPR

- “Gen Z Sinks Deeper Into Debt” from The Wall Street Journal

- “Abortion bans drive away up to half of young talent, new CNBC/Generation Lab youth survey finds” from CNBC

- “Businesses are speaking out against anti-LGBTQ laws” from Marketplace

Want more “Make Me Smart” in your life? Sign up for our newsletter at marketplace.org/smarter.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Marketplace listeners, you know around here we like to think you're never too young to learn about the economy and financial basics.
0:05.6	That's why we're bringing the million bazillion live tour to school to teach important lessons about budgeting, investing, saving, and more.
0:12.8	It's all the fun of the podcast, but now live,
0:15.4	immersive and interactive.
0:17.4	Special thanks to our tour partner, Green Light,
0:19.8	the debit card and money app for kids and teens.
0:22.6	Learn more about Greenlight at greenlight.
0:24.6	dot com slash million.
0:26.4	That is Greenlight dot com slash million. Hello everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart where none of us is
0:39.7	as smart as all've no doubt
0:45.0	you've no doubt.
0:48.0	And I'm Amy Scott filling in for Ky Rizdahl. As you've no doubt read a lot about pro-Palestinian student protesters across the country have been pushing for their
0:53.4	universities to divest from Israel and the war in Gaza and at the center of all
0:59.4	that are endowment funds the financial assets that are donated to universities over time and then invested.
1:08.0	Right, and so today we're going to talk about the power of college endowments and dig into how universities manage these funds.
1:15.4	So here to make us smart about this is Charlie Eaton.
1:18.4	He's a sociology professor at the University of California Merced and author of the book
1:23.2	Bankers in the Ivory Tower the troubling rise of finance
1:27.9	financiers I always worry about how to say that financiers and Higher Education. Welcome to the show, hey Charlie.
1:34.3	Hey Charlie, so much for having me. How do you say that word by the way?
1:39.2	Finance ears, you nailed it.
1:41.5	Awesome, you know it's funny, I have, despite having been in this business for so long, I have this
	...

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