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The Ayers Foundation gives $15 million to Nashville's Belmont University specifically aimed for tuition reduction; this gift comes without even a nod to the enormous tuition rates.

"Now comes news that the university received a $15 million gift—the largest single donation in the school's 125-year history—from the Parsons, Tennessee-based Ayers Foundation. And once again, the gift focuses on expanding opportunity for disadvantaged students. Scholarships from the Ayers endowed fund will be awarded to qualified Belmont students based on financial need. 

"We imagine there will be a lot of demand for these scholarships, since Belmont University is a perfect case study of runaway college tuition costs. Between 1990 and 2000, tuition at the school more than doubled from $4,650 to $11,550. Then, over the next decade, it doubled again—to $22,860. And it's kept rising. Belmont's tuition hikes have been typical of private colleges and universities. 

"It's nice that the school has lately been pulling in lots of money for scholarships, but it seems to us that the donors in the case are fighting a losing battle, with gifts that address the symptoms and not the causes of college affordability."--Mike Scutari, Inside Philanthropy


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