Financial Report
Alumni Fund Once More Enables College To Balance Its Books for the Fiscal Year
ONCE AGAIN the Alumni Fund has enabled die College to make a highly favorable financial showing, it is disclosed by Halsey C. Edgerton '06, treasurer, and Max A. Norton '19, bursar, in their annual financial report for the fiscal year which ended June 30. The unrestricted monies made available through the Fund prevented an operating deficit of $73,601.38 for the year 1937-38 and also provided $25,163.07 toward the unfinanced balance on the Dartmouth Hall reconstruction. The balance on the latter account now stands at $51,087.74.
Operating expenses of the College during 1937-38 were somewhat higher than in the previous year, the total of $1,908,169.01 representing an increase of $37,497.02. "The increase in instructional expense was somewhat greater than the figures show as a result of a reclassification of certain expenses heretofore carried under that classification and now carried under administration expenses," it is explained by Mr. Edgerton in his introduction to the report. "General expenses, while lower than last year, were still above what might be considered normal as a result of the continued expenditure for rehabilitation of the Hanover Inn and by an appropriation made by the Trustees to make possible the carrying ahead of the program for the Dartmouth Outing Club developments at Moosilauke."
STUDENT INCOME INCREASED
Income for the year was materially increased as a result of the $450 tuition fee which became fully effective last year after an increase to $425 the year before. Income from students, after the subtraction of $ 132,040.00 for scholarship aid, amounted to $979,558.48 and was $61,457.87 greater than in 1936-37. Scholarship aid increased somewhat more proportionately than total tuition receipts and stood at 12.2% of the total tuition charges.
Income from investments amounted to $673,295.33, or $12,242.42 more than the previous year, but $24,125.00 of this total was set aside, in accordance with a policy adopted by the Board of Trustees last October, to establish an Income Equalization Reserve designed to offset decreased dividends in unfavorable years. The operating income from investments last year, therefore, was $11,882.58 lower than in 1936-37. Miscellaneous income was $10,116.68 less than the year before, and income from gifts was $11,951.59 less. The average net income from investments was a little larger than in the previous year, the average return being 3.95% as compared with 3.79%.
Below is a table of income and expense on a per student basis. Although open to misinterpretation and subject to qualification, it is presented as a graphic explanation of College financing for the year.
The relative investment in stocks as compared with bonds did not change materially during the year reported. "During the year," Mr. Edgerton states, "the investments in railroad securities have been decreased somewhat, but the total is still large considering the difficulties now facing that industry. Holdings of public utility bonds have been substantially increased. Investments in mining and oil securities appear to have increased more than is actually the fact as a result of some reclassifications of securities formerly carried as industrial. Allowing for this reclassification, other industrial securities have been increased somewhat. Some of our previous holdings were sold and the proceeds reinvested in other securities which were believed to have better prospects."
The grand total at which the assets of the College are carried on the balance sheet stands at $24,624,330.53, an increase of $42,918.53 over the 1936-37 figure. The educational plant is carried at $7,260,312.37, and if to this is added the total of dormitories and other service properties carried as investments of endowment funds, the plant figure would be $10,110,813.44. The increase during the year of $246,891.91 is largely represented by the completion of Thayer Hall, the new upperclass dining unit. This building and its furnishings represent a total cost of $355,878.73, for which no permanent financing has yet been arranged.
The present total of Dartmouth's endowment and reserve funds is $17,293,455.38. These funds were increased during the year by gifts totaling $644,323.87. The largest addition to endowment funds was the payment of $489,000 by an anonymous donor who made a pledge several years ago enabling the College to meet the conditions accompanying a grant made by the General Education Board for the development of the Honors Courses. During the year the death of Edward Tuck '62 made it possible to announce that he was the donor of Anonymous Fund No. 2, carried at a valuation at the time it was received of $725,000. The fund has been added to the Edward Tuck Endowment Fund, which now totals $3,843,156.11, and has been entered at the market value of the securities. This resulted in a reduction of $325,000 in the combined funds from the figures reported in previous years.
Mr. Edgerton's introduction to the financial report closes with a tribute to the Alumni Fund and what it means in the financial administration of the College. "The Alumni Fund," he declares, "has again this year, as has been the case for many years now, made it possible for the President and the Trustees to go ahead with many items of expenditure which otherwise would not have been undertaken. The value of this to the College is much more than can be measured by the dollars involved, important as this measure may be. The Alumni Fund is truly a cross-section of the entire operation of the College.
"To the contributors, to the Class Agents and their Assistants, and to the Members and Officers of the Fund Committee goes the deepest appreciation for making possible this truly remarkable showing."
Attention of alumni is called to the free distribution of printed copies of the complete Financial Report for 1937-38. Copies may be obtained by those not already on the mailing list by addressing a request to the Treasurer's Office.
