Student tuition and your Annual Fund donations account for 64% of the income we use to operate the University each year. If you were to look at a similar chart from other colleges and universities, you would see two major differences:

• State colleges and universities would show a large portion of the pie from tax revenues, because they receive substantial support from state taxes.
• Private colleges and universities would show a much larger portion of the pie from endowment income. Older private institutions, with tens of thousands of alumni, are supported by endowments ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.

As a private university we enjoy no tax support. As a young institution, we have just the beginning of an endowment. This means we must operate our university without a major source of revenue that other institutions enjoy. Despite this challenge, we have created the highest quality university education in the world.

How do we do it? We are fortunate to have a human endowment — an exceptionally dedicated and talented faculty and staff. Working essentially as volunteers, they contribute their expertise in teaching, research, and management. They make up for the $50-100 million endowment we do not yet have.

You are part of this same team, along with our many other dedicated donors. Working together, we offer something critically needed in the world today. The September 11 attacks demonstrate that the U.S. cannot defend itself against determined terrorists. At the same time, we see rising tensions in the Middle East, coupled with ongoing violence around the world.

All of this underscores the failure of modern education and the urgent need to make our Consciousness-Based approach available everywhere. By incorporating the technology for developing total brain functioning into educational systems everywhere, we can ensure that no child ever grows up to be a terrorist — that all children grow up to enjoy life in accord with Natural Law, life in higher states of consciousness, life in a world at peace. In this, Maharishi University of Management has been the pioneer. We have been so fortunate to have such people as you recognize the urgent need for this approach to education and support the University financially.