At the annual meeting for his Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett criticized a college that expanded its endowment but didn’t cut tuition or boost enrollment.

“I was the trustee of a college that saw the endowment go from $8 million to over a billion, and I didn’t see the tuition come down, and I didn’t see the number of students go up,” Buffett said April 30 in a conversation with Charles Munger, the company’s vice chairman, at the event in Omaha, Nebraska.

While he didn’t name the school, it’s clear to officials at Grinnell College which institution he’s talking about. The liberal arts school in Iowa, with a $1.8 billion endowment as of June 2015, said Buffett’s facts about enrollment aren’t correct.

‘Most Appreciative’

“Grinnell College is most appreciative of the service Warren Buffett has provided to the college,” Lisa Lacher, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail when asked by Bloomberg about Buffett’s comments. “We do, however, have data to share that contradict some of his assertions.”

Buffett, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, joined Grinnell’s board in 1968 through his connection with Joe Rosenfield, a Grinnell alumnus and trustee. Buffett, who also chaired the investment committee, remained on the board until he was named a life trustee in 1987, resigning from that post in 2011, the school said. Berkshire, based in Omaha, is located about three hours west of the school by car.

The fund’s value reached $1.5 billion in 2011, up from $10.9 million in 1968, according to Grinnell.

“Enrollment did go up during these years,” Lacher said. Total enrollment was 1,693 in 2011, up about 60 percent from 1968. The number of students reached 1,705 in 2015.

Architect of Growth

Buffett was right that tuition hasn’t decreased. But Lacher said that “growth in the endowment and endowment spending has enabled the college to make substantial increases in institutional financial aid and increase the number of Pell-eligible students while maintaining a need-blind admissions policy and meeting 100 percent of the demonstrated financial need of domestic students.”

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