FOOTBALL: Run game finding its place in Lincoln Riley’s scheme: PAGE 6 The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916
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University funds underutilized OU will try to better invest endowments ANNA MAYER news reporter @AnnaMay136
OU’s provost is urging the university to find a more efficient way of dealing with unassigned scholarships and endowments in the face of increasing education cuts from the state. In the last September Faculty Senate meeting, a monetary issue
was brought up for the first time and caused confusion among many. According to the Faculty Senate minutes, OU Provost Kyle Harper said OU had almost $20 million in unexpected endowments and scholarships in non-interest bearing accounts. With the way endowments work, a donor generally specifies the way in which the income is to be spent, whether to purchase new library books, create a new department position or even to simply pass spending direction to
the university, according to Emory University finance division. Due to the restrictions, the university is unable to spend the primary endowment but is able to KYLE spend all or some HARPER of the income generated through the investment of the gift. Most endowments have terms that specifically impose that the university maintain the original
balance of the endowment. The university has a legal and ethical obligation to honor the terms of the endowment. The OU Foundation currently has $1 billion endowments in university programs, said Guy Patton, OU Foundation president and CEO. A 5 percent dividend is put into accounts for immediate spending demand deposits. Although originally confused as to what Harper was referring to, Patton said the fact that those moneys are not in current non-interest bearing accounts is not
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unusual, but it would be unusual if that money were to go unused. That is exactly the point that Harper was getting at. Harper did not intend to imply that $20 million was lying in a single non-interest bearing account. The $20 million is actually divided up among 3,000 accounts, Patton said.
SEE SCHOLARSHIP PAGE 2
Boren: Budget cuts possible OU President says penny tax plan vital BRIANNA SIMS news reporter @briannana18
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tudent Government Association presidential and vice presidential candidates debated Monday night in Meacham Auditorium, discussing topics including but not limited to guns on campus and cultural inclusion. Who will you vote for? To review what each candidate said at last night’s debate, visit OUDaily.com, and be sure to vote today at elections.ou.edu.
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In his State of the University address at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting, OU President David Boren said government budget cuts would be likely if his penny tax proposal does not pass. Boren painted a bleak future for the university if the petition for the one-penny sales tax is not passed to combat the education crisis in Oklahoma. Boren said that teachers are leaving Oklahoma for better pay in states like Arkansas, which offers about $4,000 more annually than Oklahoma jobs. He also worried that the payment for education has become more of a private service rather than public. Therefore, Boren proposed the penny tax. “We’re proposing a one-penny sales tax. I’m not the biggest fan of the sales tax. It’s not solely my plan. I’m happy to take the blame for it, because I believe we have to do something. Our education system is crumbling. This would raise $615 million. The greatest beneficiaries of this would be the education system. This would give $60 million to early childhood education and $120 million to higher education every year. Under the formula, that would be an $18 million increase for the Norman campus if we can get it passed. If you add in the Health Sciences Center and the programs in Tulsa, well over $30 million would come to the University of Oklahoma SEE BOREN PAGE 2
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