It’s part of any tightening budget: being honest about priorities. When there’s less money coming in, it just makes sense to, say, skip eating out. Imagine, though, that you’d been given money specifically to go out for dinner, and you used it to pay the electric bill instead. The original donor of your eating out funds might be a little upset that you used the money for something else, despite the urgency. This is the situation that a few colleges are facing, but it’s grant money–not walkin’ around money–that’s being reallocated, and the donors aren’t happy.

Spending Cuts Forcing the Hands of Administrators
With massive cuts come massive cutbacks, ranging from fewer classes offered to altogether stopping spring admissions. A grant that has remained untouched by a school’s budget crisis but funds something perceived as less necessary, like a radio station for example, is pretty tempting. After all, doesn’t it seem a touch more important to keep financial aid flowing?

Whatever the money is grabbed from or put towards, the fact remains that donations typically come with strings–agreed upon strings, contractual strings that will stand up in a court of law. Using the money for anything other than its originally intended purpose is a violation of trust and downright wrong.

Rainy Day Money
Many long-standing grants and other donations were created as a kind of rainy day money jar. No matter what the school is going through, it’ll still have a radio station or the money to fund a certain club. That was the original point, and moving the money around to cover costs can’t be seen as an option. Times are tough, but this kind of behavior simply won’t fly.