College Reports Balanced Books

ALUMNI FUND AGAIN PREVENTS DEFICIT FOR THE YEARAND REDUCES BALANCE DUE ON DARTMOUTH HALL

IN THEIR annual financial report to the Trustees, Halsey C. Edgerton '06, treasurer of the College, and Max A. Norton '19, bursar, last month revealed that the College had balanced its books for the fiscal year ended June 30. Once again the Alumni Fund made possible this favorable financial report, preventing what would have been a deficit of $79,540.23 for the year and providing an additional $21,571.17 which was used to reduce the balance outstanding on the reconstruction of Dartmouth Hall.

Expenses for the year increased over those of the previous year by $114,136.95, bringing the total to $1,880,661.99. "The major portion of this increase," Mr. Edgerton's foreword to the financial report declares, "was due to the establishment of the Student Health Service, the total cost of which amounted to $89,056.11 and the net cost to $77,728.93. A portion of this type of expense had previously been carried under the Instructional classification. This reclassification gives an apparent reduction in the total cost of Instructional expense which is somewhat misleading in part. General expense showed an increase due to the contribution made to the fund for enlargement of the plant of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, and unusual expenses in the rehabilitation of the Hanover Inn."

INVESTMENT INCOME INCREASES

Income showed a similar increase, the largest gain being the $58,521.94 increase in net income from investments, which totaled 1661,052.91 for the year. "With our substantial ownership of common stocks," Mr. Edgerton reported, "increased corporate earnings and new tax laws resulted in substantial increases in dividends." The raising of the tuition fee from $400 to §425 gave the College additional revenue of $44,742.02 from students, who nevertheless paid a lower percentage of the total College expense than they did the previous year, this percentage being 48.82 per cent as compared to 49.44 per cent the year before.

The grand total carried on the College balance sheet is $24,581,412.00, an increase of $127,983.35 over the 1935-36 figure. The educational plant is carried at $7,013,420.46, representing a gain of $103,851.03 during the year. If dormitories and certain service properties carried as investments of endowment funds were included in the plant figure it would have a total valuation of $9,876,234.70. The principal change during the year resulted from start- ing construction of Thayer Hall, the new upperclass dining hall. During the year Chandler Hall was razed and written off both sides of the Plant accounts. The unfinanced balance on the reconstruction of Dartmouth Hall now stands at $76,250.81.

The present total of Dartmouth's endowment and reserve funds stands at $17,345-365.70, which is 70.6 per cent of the balance sheet total. This figure represents an increase of $105,536.36 over the preceding year, the larger items in this increase including the payment of a bequest of $50,000 by the late Henry B. Thayer '79 to found the Hopkins Fund, and a gift of $51,43°, subject to an annuity agreement, by an alumnus who prefers to remain anonymous. Gifts to endowment, of great value to the College, are held intact as far as principal is concerned and only the income used for instructional and other general expenses of the College.

The financial report disclosed that the average return on all investments for the past fiscal year was 3.79 per cent as compared with 3.44 per cent for the previous year. Of the investments held by the College, 41.4 per cent is in stocks, 33.5 per cent in bonds, and the balance in real estate and mortgages. Of the last group, the dormitories, valued at $2,230,001.00, form the largest single item (12.8 per cent of the whole).

"During the year," Mr. Edgerton explains in his foreword, "we have increased somewhat, but not radically, our holdings in stocks and have reduced somewhat our holdings in bonds. In order to secure better diversification we have liquidated a portion of our holding of Standard Oil of New Jersey and reinvested in a diversified group of industrial stocks. In order to get a diversification of stock investments among the Separately Invested Funds we invested in an investment trust."

ALUMNI FUND

Mr. Edgerton closed his foreword with the following tribute to the 1937 Alumni Fund:

"To submit a Financial Report for the year without taking the opportunity of giving an expression of appreciation to the contributors, class agents, and officers of the Dartmouth College Alumni Fund on the Tucker Foundation would be unthinkable. To the 7>942 contributors who provided the $103,936.73 goes my expression of recognition of the debt of gratitude due from the College.

"It is gratifying indeed to record total contributions in excess of $lOO,OOO for the first time that such a total has been available since 1931. Then too, the number of contributors to the Fund increased over the number last year by 5.3 per cent, establishing a new record for participants in the Fund.

After adding to the contributions the income from special funds and deducting the expenses for the year, there was available for distribution the sum of $101,111.39. The first application of this sum was to meet what would have been the deficit for the year $79,540.22, and the balance of $21,571.17 was used to reduce the balance outstanding on Dartmouth Hall reconstruction.

"If we were to figure the Alumni Fund as a return on endowment funds, it would require a capital of about two and onehalf million dollars to equal it. Perhaps to some this may picture the real value of the fund better than using the figures for the year."

COPIES OF REPORT AVAILABLE

Attention of alumni is called to the free distribution of printed copies of the complete Financial Report for 1936-37. They may be secured by those not already on the mailing list by addressing a request to the Treasurer's Office.