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Mount Allison’s endowment fund keeps on giving

Mount Allison carefully stewards its $97-million endowment fund, one of the largest in the country on a per-student basis. "Currently the endowment fund provides approximately $4.5 million in annual spending to Mount Allison," says David Stewart, Vice-President, Administration.

"Most of our endowments are restricted to certain purposes. However, some are not and this past year one of those, the Marjorie Young Bell Endowment Fund was used to enable the University to install a liquid nitrogen plant," he said. The liquid nitrogen plant, which went into service in September 2007, was a replacement for a 35-year old plant that was no longer feasible to operate. The total cost of the new operation was $265,000.

An uninterrupted supply of liquid nitrogen is needed to maintain instruments and equipment in the biology and physics departments. "In the sciences, liquid nitrogen is as essential as electricity," says Roger Smith, laboratory manager of the chemistry department. It is through generous gifts such as this from the estate of Margaret Young Bell that Mount Allison can direct monies where they are needed most.

Mount Allison has a responsibility to use its endowment funds not only to support the current generation of students and faculty, but also to support equally all future generations. As a result, the University has a spending policy that protects the real value of its endowments so that projects like this will be able to be accomplished indefinitely. Indeed, even investments as unique as liquid nitrogen machines are enabled through our well-invested endowment fund.