UK To Pay Back $7.6M To Endowments

{Lexington, Kentucky}...The University of Kentucky will pay back $7.6 million after dipping into endowment principal to fund Bucks for Brains, a program that provides matching state dollars for certain private donations. The state's higher education governing agency noticed that UK was spending endowment principal in 2010. Council on Postsecondary Education president Bob King says that when state funds are used to match private donations, the principal is not supposed to be touched. In the past, with the permission of donors, UK has spent 4.25% each year from its endowments without regard to how the investments performed in the stock market. Much of UK's Bucks for Brains endowments are used to pay  salaries. When the markets collapsed in 2008, the endowment incomes fell, but the obligations to faculty did not.