Trouble at Woodrow Wilson school

by: kwilkinson

Fri Feb 10, 2006 at 03:04:03 PM EST

The Daily Princetonian's article reviewing a public forum that took place regarding the 75th anniv "Intellectuals and War" is missing from the website.  But an opinion piece by a student who wasn't impressed with the forum and overall seemed to be taking Dean Slaughter's side is up today.

From the Trenton Times:

University funds diverted

Princeton president admits money wasn't used as donors wished

The president of Princeton University has admitted in court documents that $750,000 earmarked by a foundation for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs was diverted to other uses and that she kept the diversion secret from the family who had donated the funds.

Shirley M. Tilghman, who is president of the university as well as of the foundation, made the admission in a deposition under questioning by lawyers for the Robertson family -- major donors who are fighting a court battle to try to wrest control of a $620 million endowment from the university.

While the $750,000 is a small part of the Robertson family's gift to the school, the issue of whether the funds were used as specified in the bequest is central to the case...

From 1990 to 2003, the university increased its annual charges to the foundation from $4.4 million to $23.8 million, according to the Robertson legal briefs, while the number of graduate students taking government jobs declined from nine in 1990 and 10 in 1991 to three in 2002 and six in 2003.

Each placement cost the foundation $2.27 million in salaries, tuition and fees. Most of the Woodrow Wilson School graduate students receive scholarships from foundation money, with the foundation now kicking in $30 million annually.

"Despite receiving money from the foundation for four decades, the Woodrow Wilson School is doing a terrible job of recruiting, preparing and placing career government employees," Lapidow asserted in the brief.

"Instead, most go into the private sector," he said. From 1974 to 2004, fewer than 12 percent of the Woodrow Wilson School graduates took U.S. government jobs.

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The Robertsons also claim that a financial analysis of the university's spending showed that over the years it used $207 million worth of foundation funds for purposes other than support of the Woodrow Wilson School.

Princeton has "worked for decades to evade those restrictions in order to serve its own broad interests," the brief asserted.