Tucker Fund Report

The fourth annual report of the Tucker Alumni Scholarship and Instruction Fund has recently been published and forwarded to the alumni. It may, however, be of interest to observe the fluctuations in the support given to this fund since the movement of which it is the result was begun:

No. of Year Contributors Am't Rec'd 1906-1907 553 $5,147.10 1907-1908 686 6,250.44 1908-1909 423 3,671.90 1909-1910 327 3,298.75 Total $18,368.19

The sudden falling off in both the number of subscribers and the total amount subscribed after the very satisfactory increase shown in the second year of operation is attributable in part to general financial disturbances; in part to the heavy demands made upon the alumni in other directions. At the same time the fact may be deplored that after four years, so small a proportion of the 4000 alumni should have grasped the true significance of the Tucker Bund. The object of the fund is basically to help pay the running expenses of the College. The bulk of such expenses are met by income from endowment, that is, invested funds,' and by income from tuitions; but in an institution making even the slowest growth, this is seldom sufficient. Thus the treasurer's report for the past year shows income from investments, and from tuitions of $247,- 434.73, while the expenses were $284,927.25. The state grant of $20,000, the income from the Tucker Fund and various other gifts, brought these two extremes within approximately $5,000 of meeting. The latter sum stands as deficit.

It may well be trusted that, in course of time, the college endowment will be substantially increased through the generosity of large benefactors. But at all times the number of those who are able to add to the capital account in terms of actual investment will be small in comparison with those able to add to that account in terms of themselves. Thus a body of 4,000 alumni habitually contributing ah annual average of $5 per man to the needs of the College is equivalent to half a million of invested funds. The half million is not easily to be brought together; the securing, by means of the Tucker Fund, of the income which it represents should be fraught with no insuperable difficulties.