Last month, U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Charles Grassley sent letters to universities with endowments worth at least $500 million, asking why they aren't using more of that cash to help make a college education more affordable.
And UF was one of the 136 universities to get something in the mail.
Since the university's endowment funds in 2007 totaled more than $1.2 billion, the UF Foundation intends to answer the senators' inquiries in 30 days or less.
And we'd be interested to know what that answer will be.
With tuition rising faster than the rate of inflation, we're glad some in Congress finally recognize that something needs to be done - and quickly - to ensure every American has access to a college degree.
Endowments, essentially stockpiles of money universities invest to ensure financial security, receive high rates of return that are tax-free.
And on average, endowments at 785 institutions in the U.S. and Canada enjoyed huge investment returns of 17.2 percent - the biggest in a decade.
But, they only spent an average of 4.6 percent of their endowments last year, and some lawmakers have said that the spending rate should be at least 5 percent.
Maybe they finally realized the disconnection between bragging about billions in the bank while students are struggling to pay for books.
Since the University of Texas system announced Thursday that it will spend more of its endowment so it can attract and keep faculty - with the added bonus of reducing the size of tuition hikes - we're wondering if UF will follow suit.
Granted, the Texas system does have an $11.7 billion endowment. We're certainly not suggesting that UF is in the same financial position, and we also understand that as a public school, the budget is greatly affected by the economy.
However, with UF enjoying a higher-than-average 22.4 percent increase from the endowment funds in 2006, we're wondering why there hasn't been more of an effort to share the wealth.
UF Foundation Associate Vice President Leslie Bram said that while the university has "leap-frogged up that endowment list over the last 20 years," the cost of college for middle-class families is not an issue at UF because of the availability of Bright Futures scholarships.
We appreciate the steps the state of Florida has taken to keep our tuition low.
But with the expected tuition increases in the coming years in combination with slim state budgets, we don't see the harm in using more of the endowment to offset these costs.
Who's to say that more cannot be done to encourage donors to limit their donations to financial aid or more scholarships?
Whatever we've said in the past about Bernie, the man has delivered when it comes to fundraising. Who could possibly forget that "Voyage to Tomorrow"-themed kickoff for UF's $1.5 billion capital campaign?
However, one of the major obstacles in using endowment money is that a lot of the money that comes into UF is restricted.
The university is often marketed as a research institution, and some seem to forget there are actually students here that have to take classes.
And as the endowment skyrockets along with tuition, it's important to remember that while we care about Florida Tomorrow, we also care about Florida today.
