The Sources and Uses of Annual Giving at Private Research Universities

[Excerpt] In 1998-99, Cornell University and Duke University were ranked second and third in the nation, respectively, in terms of the volume of giving each received from external donors. That year Cornell reported receiving $341.3 million in annual giving and Duke reported receiving$331.0 million. The similarity in the total volume of giving that the two institutions received is actually very misleading. Fifty-four percent of Cornell’s gift total came from alumni, while only 15.3% of Duke’s gift total came from alumni. Similarly, 79.7% of Cornell’s gift total came from individuals (alumni plus other individuals) while only 26.2% of Duke’s gifts came from individual donors. Cornell’s giving is clearly much more dependent on individuals than is Duke’s and Duke’s is much more dependent in turn on corporations and foundations. Institutions differ not only in the sources of their annual giving but also in their uses of such funds. For example, during the 1993-94 to 1997-98 period, the average percentages across 78 private research universities of annual giving devoted to current expenditures, building and equipment, and enhancing the endowment were 53.5%, 14.5% and 31.5%, respectively. However, there was wide variation across the institutions in each of these percentages, with the standard deviations of these percentages being 16.9, 12.1 and 15.5, respectively. Our paper addresses why private research universities differ in the sources and uses of their annual giving. The next section provides some background data on the trends and variations in the shares of annual giving coming from and going to different uses. We then use data from a panel of private research universities for the 1968-69 to 1998-99 period to estimate models that provide explanations for why the levels and shares of giving coming from different sources and going to different uses vary across institutions and over time. Our explanations focus both on differences in characteristics of the institutions and differences in macroeconomic variables, such as changes in federal estate, corporate, and capital gains tax rates

Within State Transitions From 2-Year to 4-Year Public Institutions

[Excerpt] Within many large states there are multiple 2-year and 4-year institutions. In 1998-99, only 19 states had less than 15 public 2-year institutions. Of the 31 states with 15 or more public 2-year institutions, only 3 had 5 or fewer public 4-year institutions. State policymakers and system administrators should want to know how well each 2-year public institution is doing in preparing those of its students who transfer to public 4-year institutions in the state to successfully complete 4-year college study. Similarly, they should want to know how successful each 4-year college in the state is in graduating those students from 2-year colleges that transfer to it. This information could then be used either in summative evaluations that relate to resource allocation decisions, or more preferably, in formative evaluations in which knowledge of the best practices of the most successful institutions are transmitted to their sister institutions in the state. That is, the information could be used to help improve the performance of a state’s public higher education system. Our paper uses data provided to us by the Office of Institutional Research of the State University of New York (SUNY) to illustrate a methodological approach that can be used to address these issues. While the methodology we develop is applied to data from the SUNY system, the paper’s main purpose is to illustrate the methodology because we the approach can be usefully employed in any state that has multiple public 2-year and 4-year institutions. In the next section, we describe the SUNY system, discuss the data to which we have been granted access and sketch out our methodological approach. Empirical findings are provided in the following three sections and the sensitivity of our finding to the specific model estimated and sample of data used are examined. Section VI presents a discussion of the some of the conceptual and statistical limitations of our approach and the types of data that, if available, would improve the analyses

Estimation of convective rain volumes utilizing the are-time-integral technique

Interest in the possibility of developing useful estimates of convective rainfall with Area-Time Integral (ATI) methods is increasing. The basis of the ATI technique is the observed strong correlation between rainfall volumes and ATI values. This means that rainfall can be estimated by just determining the ATI values, if previous knowledge of the relationship to rain volume is available to calibrate the technique. Examples are provided of the application of the ATI approach to gage, radar, and satellite measurements. For radar data, the degree of transferability in time and among geographical areas is examined. Recent results on transferability of the satellite ATI calculations are presented

What a Difference a Decade Makes: Growing Wealth Inequality Among Ivy League Institutions

[Excerpt] The eight Ivy League institutions – Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale - are among our nations most selective undergraduate institutions. They also are among its wealthiest. They compete against each other for top faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as on intercollegiate athletic fields. However, this competition has never taken place on a level “playing field” because of the vast differences in endowment resources that have always existed across the institutions. The prolonged stock market expansion during the 1990s magnified these differences in ways that many still do not fully comprehend

Within State Transitions from 2-Year to 4-Year Public Institutions

Within many large states there are multiple 2-year and 4-year public institutions. Our paper develops a methodology that can be used to help evaluate how well each 2-year public institution in a state is doing in preparing those of its students who transfer to 4-year public institutions to successfully complete their 4-year programs. Similarly, the methodology can be used to help evaluate how well each 4-year public institution is doing in graduating the those students from 2-year institutions who transfer to it. The methodology is illustrated using data provided by the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis of the State University of New York.

An Aristotelian ethic for the professional naval officer

The Navy\u27s training revolves around the core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment. It is my purpose here to propose an Aristotelian based ethic for the professional U.S. Naval Officer. Chapter One will be my introduction. In Chapter Two I will look at Aristotle\u27s practical reasoning and what it takes to attain excellence. Chapter Three will explore the U.S. government\u27s broken covenant with members of the armed forces. The law and morality pertaining to warriors will be addressed in Chapter Four. Chapter Five will address the apprenticeship of junior officers and their need for growth and mentoring. I will conclude in Chapter Six with recent examples of heroic behavior and real life role models. Navy core values training is imperative. Memorization of a laundry list of requirements falls short of what young professionals need

An Evaluation of the New York State Workers’ Compensation Pilot Program for Alternative Dispute Resolution

In 1995, the State 0f New York enacted legislation authorizing the establishment of a workers\u27 compensation alternative dispute resolution pilot program for the unionized sector of the construction industry. Collective bargaining agreements could establish an alternative dispute resolution process for resolving claims (including but not limited to mediation and arbitration), use of an agreed managed care organization or list of authorized providers for medical treatment that constitutes the exclusive source of all medical and related treatment, supplemental benefits, return-to-work programs, and vocational rehabilitation programs. The legislation also directed the School ofIndustrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) to evaluate compliance with state and federal due process requirements provided in the collective bargaining agreements authorized by this act, and the use, costs and merits of the alternative dispute resolution system established pursuant to this act. In response to this legislative mandate, ILR reviewed the research previously conducted on alternative dispute resolution (ADR), generally, and in workers\u27 compensation. This included examining the purported advantages and disadvantages of ADR, the prevalence of ADR, and published statistical or anecdotal evidence regarding the impact of ADR. ILR created a research design for claimant-level and project-level analyses, and developed data collection instruments for these analyses that included an injured worker survey for ADR claimants and claimants in the traditional (statutory)workers\u27 compensation system, an Ombudsman\u27s log, a manual of data elements pertaining to ADR and comparison group claimants, and interview questions for ADR signatories and other officials. The findings in this report draw upon a comparison of claimant-level, descriptive statistics (averages) for injured workers in the ADR and traditional (statutory) workers\u27 compensation system; the results of more sophisticated, statistical analyses of claimant-level data; and project-level information (including, but not limited to, interviews with ADR signatories and dispute resolution officials)

Why Do School District Budget Referenda Fail?

[Excerpt] Public elementary and secondary education is financed in many states at least partially at the local level and school district budgets in many states are determined by voter referenda. To date, however, there have been no studies that sought to explain why the proportion of school district budget proposals in a state that are approved by voters in referenda varies over time. Similarly no research has used panel data on school districts to test whether budget referenda failures are concentrated in a small number of school districts within a state and whether the failure of a budget referendum in a school district in one year influences the likelihood that voters in the district subsequently defeat a budget referendum in the next year. Our paper uses data from school budget votes in New York State to answer these questions

Wind tunnel balance

A flow-through balance is provided which includes a non-metric portion and a metric portion which form a fluid-conducting passage in fluid communication with an internal bore in the sting. The non-metric and metric portions of the balance are integrally connected together by a plurality of flexure beams such that the non-metric portion, the metric portion and the flexure beams form a one-piece construction which eliminates mechanical hysteresis between the non-metric and the metric portion. The system includes structures for preventing the effects of temperature, pressure and pressurized fluid from producing asymmetric loads on the flexure beams. A temperature sensor and a pressure sensor are located within the fluid-conducting passage of the balance. The system includes a longitudinal bellows member connected at two ends to one of the non-metric portion and the metric portion and at an intermediate portion thereof to the other of (1) and (2). A plurality of strain gages are mounted on the flexure beams to measure strain forces on the flexure beams. The flexure beams are disposed so as to enable symmetric forces on the flexure beams to cancel out so that only asymmetric forces are measured as deviations by the strain gages

Almost principal minors of inverse M-matrices

AbstractIt is well known that if an inverse M-matrix has a 0 entry, then it must be reducible and thus have many more 0 entries. This property is actually a special case of a deeper phenomenon that might be loosely described as relations among vanishing almost principal minors in an inverse M-matrix. This phenomenon encompasses both minors of nested dimension (a certain loose monotonicity) and minors of the same size in loosely related positions. This phenomenon is limited to almost principal minors and, where possible, converses and examples are given to show the limit of the extent of this phenomenon. It is also shown that if one almost principle minor is contained in another, then the magnitude of the former is larger than that of the latter