Eastern, like the national economy, is facing fiscal difficulties as state and federal aid is undecided and the Eastern endowment, a fund that supports student scholarships, has decreased significantly.

Because of the financial instability caused by the decreasing endowment, scholarships have been directly affected. Specific information on the number of dollars each scholarship has lost has not been released.

The Eastern Illinois University Foundation lost more than 26 percent of its value during the course of 2008. It ended the year with a market value of about $32 million, down from about $45.6 million.

“2008 has been an extremely difficult year for the financial markets with nearly every asset category in decline,” said Karla Evans, director of philanthropy. “Most everyone has felt the impact in their personal portfolios, as we have here at the EIU Foundation.”

The loss has led to several scholarships decreasing their funds or being unavailable altogether. Evans explained that the scholarships are held to a spending policy that requires each fund to pay the endowment 4.25 percent of their earnings that year.

If a fund cannot support this balance, the fund must pay the actual earnings of the year and students lose the scholarship.

“Because our scholarship payouts are determined on a 12-quarter rolling average, the impact of a few bad quarters will continue to play out for the next few years,” she said.

Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, said that other in-house scholarships are also affected.

Scholarships that are granted from Eastern operating funds are not affected by the endowment, but as the budget decreases from losses of state and federal aid, they become “distressed.”

The administration and the Office of Philanthropy have been working on a national campaign to raise capital with a goal of more than $40 million.

This campaign is targeting move than 70,000 alumni for donations across the country, which will replenish funds in different aspects of the university.

“One of the focuses of the campaign will be support for students,” said Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations. “This will translate to more scholarship dollars for our students each year.”

Evans explained that it will also be divided among teaching and research aid, university programs and capital projects, or the building of new and remodeling of existing facilities.

She said the money raised would be donated in “outright cash, endowment gifts, as well as deferred giving through the future fund.”

Lord said that campaign focuses on the “generosity of our donors.”

“We want them to have a clear understanding of how their dollars are invested and how the current economic environment impacts their gifts,” he said. “Some donors will choose to supplement their endowment earnings with an outright cash gift paid directly to the student. Others will prefer that in time the market conditions improve and their endowed fund gains.”

However, this campaign has had a “slow start” because of the economic recession. There is an uncertainty about whether the campaign will meet its goal, so the administration is advising students to be prepared.

“The economic climate is affecting the university and the extent of the ‘help’ it can provide students,” Lord said. “At the same time, the economic climate is affecting students and their families’ ability to meet the costs of college attendance.

“Those seeking financial aid need to be very timely in getting all their necessary paperwork into the financial aid office. Being early will be a powerful virtue in these challenging times.”

Krystal Moya can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].