To the Editor:

I moved to Princeton with my family as a child nearly 70 years ago, and though I’ve been a member of this wonderful community for so long, I don’t think I’ve been to the Nassau Swim Club more than once or twice, if that. So I have no stake whatsoever in Princeton University’s decision to terminate the lease with the club for financial reasons.

It saddens me, however, that the University has made this decision given the benefits that the club provides to members of this community, so many of whom are children and teenagers and so many of whom are also affiliated with the University itself. It’s my understanding that approximately 20 percent of club members are University students and staff, and that well over a third of the members are associated with either the University or with the Institute for Advanced Study. (While I understand the there is no formal link between the University and the Institute, the two enjoy a close, collaborative relationship.)

It is unarguably true that the swim club has fallen significantly short of fulfilling the financial requirements of its lease with PU. A significant reason for that is because the lease requires the club to reimburse the University for the approximate $20,000 per year property tax it pays to the municipality.

So I have to ask: Given the extraordinary wealth of the University, and the benefits the club provides not only to the town itself but to so many families associated with the University, would it be too much to ask for the University to pay the property tax itself?

What do I mean by “extraordinary wealth?”

According to the University’s Office of Communications, Princeton’s endowment was $34.1 billion as of the end of its last fiscal year. That’s billion, with a B. A paltry investment return of 3 percent would generate income of $1.023 billion per year, or the tidy sum of $2.8 million per day, and a meager 5 percent return would generate $4.67 million per day of income.

But the fact is that over the past 20 years, the average rate of return on the endowment has been 10.5 percent, or close to $10 million per day. It seems clear that asking Princeton to pay the property tax on the property leased to the swim club would have about the same impact on it than if Bill Gates was asked to toss a quarter into the Salvation Army bucket at Christmas time.

So what I suggest is that the University enter into a new long term lease with the club that among other things would provide that the University pick up the tab for property taxes while at the same time forgiving part of the loan the club owes to it and working with the club’s board to restructure other debt and create a reasonable budget.

Alan Y. Medvin
Longview Drive