Claremont Institute's William Rusher on Russia

On October 18, in The Billings Gazette, Wiliam Rusher of The Claremont Institute writes about Russia and how Putin, despite his autocracy, isn't quite the threat we've made him out to be. Russia, he notes, is on the decline and unlike to rise once more.

Rusher writes that "[Russia] is nowhere near as big, let alone as powerful. And its demographic trends are disastrous; on present projections by the mid-21st century, Russia's population will be smaller than Yemen's." And yet, paradoxically, he also writes that, "Russia, by any standard, is a big and important country, and it should not be surprising that its president insists on throwing his weight around from time to time." Further, he believes that "Russia today is no military threat to the United States, or even to its much closer neighbors, and there is no prospect that it is likely to become one."

I would agree in part --that Russia won't rise in the near future to produce the kind of horrors of the 20th century-- but, in a world where nuclear weapons will ultimately be detonated by Islamic terrorists, a weak Russia terrifies me. A weak Russia will be a Russia whose nukes can be bought with Saudi-cash and whose detonation will be over American cities. A strong Russia, even if a fascist Russia -- I hope -- would be less inclined to hurt us.

Chronicle of Philanthropy Mentions The Day Gift

Maria Di Mento and Anne W. Howard wrote about the Robert Day gift, The Chronicle of Philanthropy in an October 18, 2007 article. The logic for the gift and the financial program is explained by President Gann.

Apparently, we are one of only two colleges -- the other is M.I.T.-- that have received individual gifts of over 100 million dollars.

* Robert Day, a California financier, is giving $200-million to his alma mater, Claremont McKenna College, a liberal-arts institution in Claremont, Calif., to pay for a new master's-degree program for economics and finance. Mr. Day helped the college design the program. In addition, the college plans to upgrade undergraduate programs in those fields and finance new scholarships.

....

Mr. Day's gift to Claremont McKenna will be used to create an alternative to the traditional master of business administration program, said the college's president, Pamela Gann. She said that fewer young adults want to return to college for their master's degree after entering the work force, in part because their salaries are increasing at a rapid pace and also because many of them don't want to disrupt their finances or their personal lives.

She says the college hopes to deal with that trend by giving liberal-arts undergraduates a broader understanding of finance and organizational psychology, and offering them the opportunity to get M.B.A.-level training in a master's-degree program.

Mr. Day said he thinks a liberal-arts education is crucial to the making of a competent leader. "It broadens your perspective," he says. But those same leaders, he says, also need a certain level of competency in finance, accounting literacy, and leadership psychology, and he has worked closely with the college to design a program that will include those subjects.

"This is not to turn the college into a trade school; it's to emphasize leadership," Mr. Day says, adding that today's students get a strong enough education that they don't necessarily need an M.B.A. to succeed.

Mr. Day graduated from the college in 1965 and has served on its Board of Trustees since 1970

Bloomberg On The Rise of the Mega-Gifts

The obligatory Bloomberg "mega-gift" post. (Does anyone else feel like we're talking about Mega-Tron from Transformers? I digress.)

Apparently, President Pamela Gann of Claremont McKenna was on to something with
the Robert A. Day gift, despite the sentiments of those who opposed it. We're mentioned multiple times throughout the article as an example of small liberal arts colleges challenging the fund raising behemoth that is the Ivy League. And apparently, the rest of the liberal arts colleges are working on expanding their own endowments.

Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts surpassed its $400 million capital campaign goal in June. Vermont's Middlebury College is almost halfway to its $500 million target, the most ambitious yet for any liberal arts institution. Claremont McKenna College in California received a record $200 million last month from investor Robert Day.

The article continues, addressing some of the "signature gifts" that Claremont McKenna is known for. The first bit I haven't heard about. Does anyone know anything about this campaign that's to be announced next year?

Claremont McKenna, with about 1,150 students, started soliciting gifts in March 2006 and plans to go public with the campaign next year.

Day's Donation

The school, founded in 1946, received $200 million in September from Day, an economics major who started TCW Group Inc., a Los Angeles-based investment firm that manages $70 billion. The gift will support students specializing in finance, accounting and leadership psychology.

His donation followed a $20 million gift by the Seattle- based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund science scholarships.

George Roberts, co-CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., gave $20 million in October 2006. Roberts, a 1966 graduate, is seeking $40 million in matching gifts from other donors to create endowed faculty chairs. His initiative is more than halfway to its goal, showing that a culture of philanthropy has taken hold among alumni, said Claremont McKenna President Pamela Gann.

`Big Partner'

``People feel that they can have a high impact at a liberal arts college,'' the 58-year-old Gann said. ``A $20 million gift goes a lot further here than at a research university today. I think that matters. People feel like, `Oh, I'm a big partner.' And you are.''

Exit questions and my modest proposal: If donors put down $20 million gifts, will "big partners" want big control over how their money is spent and what control are we as an institution prepared to give them? Why don't Claremont McKenna and the other Claremont Colleges combine their resource departments and get one super-mega gift? If U.S. News and World Report is a problem, the gift could be allocated by percentage of alums to the schools for a larger, one school mission. For example, if former Scrippsies give 13% of the gift, than they get 13% of the gift for the purposes of reporting. The gifts could combine for one larger (and better) library, but still effect each individual colleges' rating. Just a thought.