by dude on Fri Dec 16, 2016 3:06 pm
The size of endowment affects colleges in tons of ways. It's money they can draw to pay for athletics, but also academic programs, grounds, scholarships, professors' salaries, and so on. Wofford historically outperformed as a school, overall, by having talented leaders, dedicated staff, a lot of loyalty/respect in South Carolina (which was very much the geographic "footprint" for many years...it is growing now).
It's endowment has been way smaller than most highly regarded liberal arts schools. Now, that's not to say that Wofford hasn't benefitted from generous philanthropy. Mr. Milliken did tons for the school. The Richardsons...Gibbs....and others. But Milliken did not contribute much to the endowment -- money in the bank -- and Wofford is still behind in that area.
Of course, when a school depends on endowment earnings to meet its budget, that can have a downside. It can be hurt by fluctuations in the stock market. That happened to Wofford in 2008-2009, and some people at the college lost their jobs, including some maintenance workers who could probably least afford it.