Buffett Chides College for Not Cutting Tuition as Endowment Grew

Source: Bloomberg

May 3, 2016 — 2:19 PM EDT

At the annual meeting for his Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett criticized a college that expanded its endowment but didn’t cut tuition or boost enrollment.

“I was the trustee of a college that saw the endowment go from $8 million to over a billion, and I didn’t see the tuition come down, and I didn’t see the number of students go up,” Buffett said April 30 in a conversation with Charles Munger, the company’s vice chairman, at the event in Omaha, Nebraska.

While he didn’t name the school, it’s clear to officials at Grinnell College which institution he’s talking about. The liberal arts school in Iowa, with a $1.8 billion endowment as of June 2015, said Buffett’s facts about enrollment aren’t correct.

‘Most Appreciative’

“Grinnell College is most appreciative of the service Warren Buffett has provided to the college,” Lisa Lacher, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail when asked by Bloomberg about Buffett’s comments. “We do, however, have data to share that contradict some of his assertions.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-03/buffett-chides-college-for-not-cutting-tuition-as-endowment-grew