[bozlady]

our cup is filled to the rim and overflowing!!! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jerry!

[El Scorcho]

Yes but why would some people want to give when we have 14 millions in reserve. Some would say they have enough now, I will send my somewhere else.

Those who would say that would be ignorant. The goal, as was stated many times by our founder, is to create an endowment large enough that the university can operate on the interest that is earned on it, regardless of whether we turn a profit from year to year. This is how the largest universities operate, because it is very difficult to run an educational non-profit in the black every year.

The original stated goal for the endowment is $1b. For anyone who thinks $14m is enough of an endowment, I say to them perhaps they need to invest their money directly in one of our education programs rather than worrying about donating.

[El Scorcho]

Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. offers a trio of historic announcements during fall briefing
August 10, 2007

LYNCHBURG, VA— Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. offered a trio of historic announcements during a fall briefing with the faculty and staff of Liberty University today.

Falwell began the university meeting by stating that, due to the substantive insurance policy of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Liberty University is now debt free and can aggressively focus its fund raising efforts on solidifying the university’s endowment.

Secondly, Liberty University today received an additional endowment gift valuing 2.5 million dollars.

Finally, he announced that within the week the university will welcome the largest freshman class in her history totaling more than 3400 freshmen - bringing the total residential enrollment to approximately 10,500 students.

Falwell concluded the gathering by assuring the Liberty University faculty and staff that these historic events will enable the university to continue its commitment to train generations of “Champions for Christ” in unprecedented ways.

http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=13208&NewsID=189

[pointguard4christ]

That is really great that LU is out of the red. Thank you Jesus!

But since I can't PM for some reason will someone please tell me why? Particularly an administrator. It kind of made me mad, because I didn't do anything.

[SumItUp]

Praise be to God for this wonderful news.

[Sly Fox]

Nobody is being punished. We've had a few problems lately that we are hoping to resolve.

[Sly Fox]

And here is the the story in the fishwrap:

Falwell life insurance rids Liberty University of its debt

Lynchburg News & Advance
August 10, 2007

More than 35 years after its founding, Liberty University is finally debt-free after a $34 million life insurance payout following the death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, his son said Friday.

Click Here for Full Story

[El Scorcho]

That is really great that LU is out of the red. Thank you Jesus!

But since I can't PM for some reason will someone please tell me why? Particularly an administrator. It kind of made me mad, because I didn't do anything.

Is your PM box full?

[Purple Haize]

I must say this one caught me by suprise and it shouldn't have. It makes MORE than perfect sense.

As for the donation thing, it is actually MORE likely to help increase the endowment. Simple fund raising basics state that people are more likely to give TO something to give to get OUT of something. It will be much easier now to say "Here is what we want to do......." than to say "We need to help you pay for what we already did....."
With good stewardship, which I don't see as a long term problem at the moment, this should really help LU's infrastructure and stability. (But probably not a jump to 1A footbal.......ok had to throw that in )

[Hold My Own]

It's also important to understand most larger University's and businesses run in some debt....it's just a fact although not deep deep in debt. This is good news and allows for more options and more projects....can anyone say SKIIIIIIII SLOOOOOPES

[El Scorcho]

It's also important to understand most larger University's and businesses run in some debt....it's just a fact although not deep deep in debt.

Yup. That's why building out the endowment is so important. We're off to a great start.

[thesportscritic]

The Rev. Jerry Falwell left a $34 million parting gift to Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church when he passed away May 15.

http://tinyurl.com/3bape7

[krh44]

JF, jr. said his dad took out an additional 21 million in life insurance just 3 years ago. That was very wise and prudent, considering what happened on May 15th.

I bet the premiums were not cheap.

I actually heard on ET the week he passed away that he had $30-40 million in life ins. policy.

[krh44]

I thought we were out of debt a fre years back? Ot was that just out of financial trouble

[El Scorcho]

I bet the premiums were not cheap.

A $21 million policy bought in 2003 cost the school about $1 million annually, Falwell Jr. said.

"A lot of people were surprised that we were even able to buy a policy like that at that age but looking back it was a good decision," he said. "He was the one that really wanted to buy these policies - I sort of stayed out of these meetings because you like to think your father will never die."

http://tinyurl.com/3bape7

[Sly Fox]

I thought we were out of debt a fre years back? Ot was that just out of financial trouble

It was the latter. And we had a number of big ticket expenditures p(particularly East Campus) since thos early assessments.

[PeterParker]

Yes but why would some people want to give when we have 14 millions in reserve. Some would say they have enough now, I will send my somewhere else.

Those who would say that would be ignorant. The goal, as was stated many times by our founder, is to create an endowment large enough that the university can operate on the interest that is earned on it, regardless of whether we turn a profit from year to year. This is how the largest universities operate, because it is very difficult to run an educational non-profit in the black every year.

The original stated goal for the endowment is $1b. For anyone who thinks $14m is enough of an endowment, I say to them perhaps they need to invest their money directly in one of our education programs rather than worrying about donating.

Very true...It is also important for LU to be able to subsidize the tuition cost for the student so that the ticket price for a year is not too far off of what the state schools ticket price is. If LU can keep it's tuition/room & board within proximity to what the state schools cost, it becomes easier to recruit and retain students...as product value for the dollar will become increasingly important in the coming years in higher education. (more so than it is at present.)

[badger74]

Very smart planning.

[PAmedic]

Fantastic news!

very happy to hear it!

maybe this will cause some to have more faith in our admin

GO LU!

[pointguard4christ]

Is your PM box full?

No, only 7%. When I try to PM, a message popped up saying that I was blocked by an administrater from PMing.

[Sly Fox]

You should now be good to go, PG4C.

[El Scorcho]

Is your PM box full?

No, only 7%. When I try to PM, a message popped up saying that I was blocked by an administrater from PMing.

FYI, you have email notifications turned on and almost every email sent to your Yahoo email address by our server gets rejected. I don't know if there's a typo in your address or if you need to add us to your Address Book or something, but it'd be great if you could fix that.

[mrmacphisto]

As I remember, LU was in a ton of debt as of the late 90s, something about bonds they sold at one time. Around that time someone came forward (I think it was Williams) and donated enough to get LU out of debt. Over time recruitment became the top priority, and more debt was acquired as the school grew at an unprecedented pace.

Now that LU is out of debt once again, I hope they're able to keep it that way.

[bigsmooth]

a great day in the history of LU!! praise God.