总结：

An endowment is money from donations and investments. Colleges use endowment money for student aid and campus improvements, and for financial security.

捐赠资金都来源于他人的捐款和投资。大学捐赠款一般都用于学生的补助、校园的改善以及提供财政保障。

But college costs in the United States have been rising faster than inflation. Graduates often face years of debt from student loans. Yet more than 60 colleges and universities, half of them public, have endowments worth at least one billion dollars.

但在美国上大学费用的上涨速度远比通货膨胀来得快。毕业生往往需要背负多年的助学贷款。然而，60多所大学院校，其中半数为公立学校，拥有至少10亿美元的捐赠资金。

Critics say schools with a lot of money should be sharing more of their wealth to ease the struggle for families. As we reported last week, some now plan to do just that. These include Harvard and Yale. They will also give money to families that earn much more than those that now receive aid.

评论家认为，雄厚资金的学校应该拿出更多的资金以减轻学生家庭的负担。正如我们上周报导的，一些学校正计划去这样做，其中包括哈佛大学和耶鲁大学。这些学校同样会向有些家庭提供资助，他们的收入比目前受资助家庭的收入要更高。

Harvard has by far the largest endowment of any American university, 35 billion, followed by Yale at 22.5 billion. Yet some educational activists worry what might happen as less-endowed colleges try to compete with these changes. They say the pressure to help upper middle-class families might mean less aid for poor students.

哈佛大学是目前全美国拥有捐赠资金最多的大学，约350亿美元，耶鲁大学以225亿紧随其后，名列第二。然而一些教育活动家担心当受捐赠较少的大学试图与这些改变抗衡时会发生的什么情况。他们称，增加对中上阶层家庭的援助有可能意味着减少对穷困学生的资助。