In recent years, universities have seen their endowments balloon thanks to the boom in stocks. Yet some experts say the schools are hoarding, not spending, their wealth.

Some years ago, the Ford Foundation proposed a rule-of-thumb that universities spend 5 percent of their endowments each year. But a recent study done for the American Council of Trustees & Alumni estimates that spending has actually been declining -- to around 3 percent -- at many major institutions.

Most of the schools keep their spending patterns secret. Even trustees reportedly have trouble finding out what their university's administrators are doing. One critic believes that school officials now see their role as managers of large pools of investment assets who run educational institutions on the side.

• Edward N. Costikyan, who authored the council's study, cites estimates that colleges like Harvard University could conceivably abolish tuition altogether.

• As of 1997, Harvard's endowment stood at $10.9 billion -- or $610,000 per student.

• With a $4.9 billion endowment, Princeton University holds $776,000 per student.

• Yale's $5.7 billion equates to $525,000 for each student.

At Harvard, spending as a proportion of endowment value is reportedly somewhere between 3.8 percent and 5.8 percent. For Yale University, it is somewhere between 3.2 percent and 3.7 percent. Columbia University is said to spend 3 percent and Cornell University 3.3 percent.