foundation2

"If the question you are asking is whether University of Southern Mississippi reported to USNEWS their endowment for the year end fiscal 2004 as $2,300,253, the answer is Yes. That number was supposed to be what was reported on the IPEDS Finance 2004 report."

"For the record, it's also possible that the person from U of Southern MS made mistake in giving USNEWS the USM data. The USNEWS endowment figure was not meant to be the USM Foundation, it was meant to be what USM reported to the Federal Govt as their endowment. Our reading of the Federal Government site <http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/web2000/viewinstruction.asp?instID=299> for the fiscal 2005 IPEDS Finance data collection (note we used fiscal 2004) is that foundations are included. Please let me know what you find out". (Emphasis added.)

Unfortunately, U.S. News and World Report's efforts to explain the sources of its information led to a dead end. While under Federal tax law it appears that "foundations are included" in the endowment figures given to U.S. News and World Report, no one at the University was willing to answer questions about the Foundation. Next I tried the publicly available information at USM's website. Look under the section labeled "Facts and Figures", and see what you find. The "Facts and Figures" are "UNDER CONSTRUCTION". So, we still have no idea how much cash is in the Foundation.

However, we did glean one bit of information that appears on "Facts and Figures" and every other page of the Foundation's website. The University of Southern Mississippi Foundation is: “… a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that serves as a fiduciary of private funds donated to Southern Miss. … The Foundation manages and invests these private funds in accordance with reasonable and prudent management investment procedures." <http://www.usm.edu/foundation>

However, Tim Ryan, the Executive Director of the Foundation testified to something very different.