In Financial News

For the curious out there MU's endowment in 2001 stood at $2 million. Today it stands at over $260 million. Before the financial crisis the endowment stood at over $330 million. For a supposedly Jesuit and Catholic institution, the radical increase in endowment is surprising, especially given that this money comes from the pockets of indebted students. Instead of increasing its tuition by about $1,000 a year, the university could do something like reroute endowment money to making tuition affordable. Back in the 1920's, when MU was run by Jesuits who believed in what they taught, it was cheaper to get a law degree at MU then at UW-Madison. Now days, there is no way that a student could achieve this, at least not without massive financial aid lowering MU's tuition cost. The absurd cost of $29,000 per year, puts most MU students well over $100,000 in debt before graduation, meaning that they are unable to start paying for things like a car or a house, until a decade after graduation. Given that the church teaches that people have a right to an education, and that charging excessive amounts for anything is a grave sin, MU is clearly flaunting Catholic teachings in favor of embracing a culture of greed which is promoted by the "leading" US educational institutions. Harvard has a large enough endowment for all of its students to attend for free, yet it still charges $40,000+ a year to attend. MU should separate itself from greedy schools like that, and instead cater to all people, instead of only to the wealthy.