You know, many colleges wonder what role debt should play in building facilities and advancing the mission, and there's no one right answer because it varies a lot. As a general rule of thumb, I believe you can use debt for auxiliary enterprises like dormatories, cafeterias, and things like that that are self-amortizing and can be self-amortizing. For small colleges and universities, I really discourage debt for academic buildings, for support facilities that are not self-amortizing. I really encourage universities to engage in aggressive capital campaigns to raise the money for those kind of projects.
