Falling Oil Prices Have Universities Concerned About Donations Coming In
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AUSTIN (AP) - It's easy to see what oil money means to the University of Texas. Tuition hasn't budged in three years because of gushing wells in the Permian Basin. More than a few buildings, including the football team headquarters, are named after wildcatters.
But with oil prices down more than 50 percent since last summer, the outlook for both public revenue and donations is grim in energy-heavy states like Alaska, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Major donors tied to the energy industry are taking longer to fulfill their pledges. Some campus projects, like the planned football stadium expansion at the University of Oklahoma, have been scaled back. And some scholarship programs are taking a hit. The situation may be the grimmest in Alaska, where colleges have frozen hiring and may have to consolidate programs.
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