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Show World&Hation Page 14 Monday, Oct. 15,2007 Colleges' investments are now questioned about rising costs M E M B E R S O F T H E A R M E D W I N G of the Kurdistan W o r k e r s ' Party, o r PK.K, pose as portraits of Kurdish jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan are seen on the background in the Qandil mountains A Kurdish rebel commander warned Turkey It would encounter tough resistance and a dragged-out, Vietnam-style conflict, if it launched a large-scale offensive against the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. AP Photo General warns of damage to U.S. ties if genocide resolution passes ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's top general warned that ties with the U.S., already strained by attacks from rebels hiding in Iraq, will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide. Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the U.S. over the issue. "If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper. Despite the general's strong words, it is not clear how far Turkey will go to express its dismay to Washington. Turkey suspended its military ties with France last year after the French parliament's lower house adopted a bill that that would have made it a crime to deny that the Armenian killings constituted a genocide. But there is more at stake for Tui-lfrti r ** trt n rrrttirt i-n I n f n r n o f i NATO's only Muslim member when it comes to its relations with the U.S. The Turkish military, and especially the air force, is heavily dependent on the American defense industry, experts say. Still, when Washington imposed an arms embargo against Turkey in 1975 due to a dispute over Cyprus, Turkey ended all its logistical support to U.S. troops and sharing of intelligence until the embargo was lifted, said Onur Oymen, the country's former permanent representative to NATO. President Bush has said the resolution is the wrong response to the Armenian deaths, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure's timing was important "because many of the survivors are very old." In an interview broadcast Sunday with ABC's "This Week," Pelosi noted that the resolution would make the U.S. the 24th country to label the killings a genocide. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the measure was "irresponsible." "Listen, there's no question that the suffering of the Armenian people some 90 years ago was fiiU^n i t r / \ m o r |-/^ i t r T-OI i t i n n c Western Wats Western Wats has increased wages, and we are still willing to work around your schedule. We still offer weekly pay, a fun work environment, and we'll give you time off for school events, tests, and holidays. Call Cody 753-1303 or apply online at surveynetwork.com/application. extreme. But what happened 9C 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to sort out, not politicians here in Washington," he told "Fox News Sunday." About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there. Turkish truckers also carry water and other supplied to U.S. bases. In addition, cargo planes fly supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has "urged restraint" from Turkey and sent two officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure, which could be voted on by the House by the end of the year. At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Many international historians contend the deaths amounted to genocide, but Turkey says the mass killings and deportations were not systematic and that many Turkish Muslims also died in the chaos of war. The congressional resolution comes as the Turkish parliament debates authorizing a military campaign into northern Iraq to root out rebels who seek a unified, independent nation for Kurds in the region. U.S. officials have urged Turkey not to send troops and appealed for a diplomatic solution with Iraq. The Kurdish region in northern Iraq is one of the country's few relatively stable areas, and the Kurds here are also a longtime U.S. ally. A Kurdish rebel commander on Saturday said Turkey would face a long and bloody conflict if it launched a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq. Speaking to The Associated Press deep in the Qandil mountains straddling the Iraq-Turkish border, some 94 miles from the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, Murat Karayilan, head of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, warned that an eventual Turkish incursion would "make Turkey experience a Vietnam war." WOTTC 1 flf\ f\l lit rht frrt nO <l Cll rM&ft Turkey says the rebels use Iraqi Kurdish territory as a safe haven. (AP) -Colleges and universities raked in money by the billions last year. But their investing success now has a price - a movement in Congress to force the wealthiest schools to spend more of their money to keep down tuition. In recent weeks, a string of colleges and universities have announced enviable investment results. Leading the way was Yale, which earned 28 percent over the year ending June 30, increasing the school's endowment to $22.5 billion overall. Harvard, the world's wealthiest university with $34.9 billion, beat the market again with a 23 percent return. There also were good returns for smaller schools such as Bowdoin (24.4 percent) and William & Mary (19.2 percent). But while those numbers were coming out, some members of the Senate Finance Committee in Washington were wondering aloud why the rise in endowments isn't stemming tuition increases. At a hearing last month, lawmakers batted around the idea of forcing at least some of the wealthier colleges to spend more savings on reducing costs. "Senators, what would your constituents say if gasoline cost $9.15 a gallon?" Lynne Munson, an adjunct fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington told the committee. "Or if the price of milk was over $15? That is how much those items would cost if their price had gone up at the same rate that tuition has since 1980." In the mid-1990s, a billiondollar endowment was a mark of the financial elite, a club with just 17 schools in its ranks. By last year, 62 colleges had hit the mark. Within a few years there will likely be 100. Private foundations are required by law to spend at least 5 percent of their endowments each year on their missions, but public charities - a category that includes colleges - face no such requirement. Holding colleges to the same standard is an idea that clearly interests Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, the minority leader of the Senate Finance Committee and Capitol Hill's closest scrutinizer of nonprofits. "It'd be good to see the very elite institutions, with the richest endowments, take the lead and create a ripple effect throughout higher education to make college more affordable for everyone," he said in a statement. It's unclear right now, both Republicans and Democrats say, whether the proposal will make it out of the committee, which is considering several ideas related to taxes and higher education. In fact, colleges spent on average 4.6 percent from their endowments last year, according to the latest figures from National Association of College and University Business Officers. But if the billionaire colleges alone spent the full 5 percent, that would mean an extra $1.5 billion available annually for financial aid, calculates Michael Dannenberg, director S T U D E N T S W A L K in the campus at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y. In recent years the college and the town of Aurora have received lavish financial support from wealthy benefactor Pleasant Rowland, who made her money creating the American Girl doll. AP Photo of education policy at the New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank. He says such a requirement would be fair, given that colleges are allowed to invest tax-free. That perk has boosted many endowments by billions and carries an obligation to public service, Higher education officials were angry they weren't allowed to speak out against the proposal at a hearing last month, but submitted their own testimony last week, arguing they spend plenty on public service and that endowments aren't simply savings accounts that can be tapped at any time for any reason. Many endowment funds come with strings attached by donors on how they can be used. Colleges also have to budget prudently, taking market swings into account, and they try to avoid big jumps in spending just because the market did well in a particular year. But by sticking to gradual adjustments, they can look stingy. For instance, Yale is slated to get more than third of it's annual budget — $843 million — from its endowment this year. But because its investments did so well, that's only about 3.7 percent of the endowment. But the underlying issue is that the proposal would represent a major encroachment by Washington into university affairs. Colleges oppose government involvement in anything from how they teach to the criteria they use in admissions. They would not take kindly to Congress directing them precisely how to spend their own money. "We don't think as a general matter the federal government ought to be telling private philanthropic organizations, that have been around in some cases since before the federal government, how to spend their . money," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, the main group representing colleges and universities in Washington. Still, Hartle acknowledges colleges will have to take the complaints about colleges costs with which constituents are deluging lawmakers. Students are found safe after not emerging from cave exploration AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A group of college students who didn't emerge for more than a day from a cave they were exploring have been found safe, an emergency worker said Sunday. The two women and one man were found in a 500-foot-long crawl space about the width of a sewer pipe, said Frank Urias, division commander of AustinTravis County emergency medical services. They are expected to be pulled from the cave in a few hours. "The victims are uninjured, our crews are safe; it doesn't get any better than this," Urias said. The three University of Texas students had gone into a narrow passage near Austin called Airman's Cave on Saturday morning and told friends to call for help if they weren't back by midnight, said Austin Fire Department Lt. Matt Cox. Crews had said earlier that four students were missing but now say there were only three. Cox said he believes the students were found by a group of citizen cave explorers who came to help rescuers. Officials had said 14 people were searching, five of them private citizens. Jarvis Brown, whose 20-year-old son, Jeff, was among those in the cave, said his son had been cave exploring before. "We're very elated, for sure, and thankful that God protected them," said Brown, of San Antonio. The names of the other stu- ^ j , . . . dents weren't released. Authorities didn't have any details about what happened to the students but said it's easy to become disoriented in the narrow, 12,000-foot-long cave. The "keyhole" entrance to the cave, in a greenbelt area about five miles south of downtown, is less than 18 inches wide. Many places in the cave can be accessed only by crawling, authorities said. During the search, rescuers found water bottles and cell phones apparently left behind by the students. Crews had left food, water and medical supplies throughout the cave. Medical crews will evaluate the students after they leave the cave, officials said. % H» jfe 4 * 4fe 4 office@statesman.usu.edu A marketplace -ftor buying, selling, trading <& getting dcquaintedL Help Wanted Nannies Wanted Excellent salaries, car, paid airfare & vacations, 800-549-2132, www. TSNnannies, com AGSNEEDJOBS. COM Paid Survey Takers Needed In Logan. 100% FREE To Join! 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