Endowment troubles...Big Ten ..Privates....

College Search & Selection
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<p>Trouble</a> for Big Ten Endowments - The Paper Trail (usnews.com)</p>

<p>"If I had infinite amounts of time, I would aggregate endowment info from several college conferences and make pretty graphs (after the jump). Luckily the Penn Staters from Onward State did it for me, at least for the Big Ten.</p>

<p>What we see here is that Northwestern and Michigan both have huge endowments, and the largest losses in sheer amount.</p>

<p>But when you look at percentage loss, Northwestern actually lost the least and currently has the largest endowment, while Iowa lost the most and has the smallest endowment. Oh this crazy/unfair world we live in. The middle of the pack doesn't reveal much rhyme or reason."</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11540137%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11540137&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"Stanford suspends $1.3 billion in construction projects as endowment plunges</p>

<p>Faced with an unprecedented decline in the value of its endowment, Stanford University is suspending $1.3 billion worth of construction projects, Provost John Etchemendy told the school's faculty senate this week.</p>

<p>The school will protect faculty positions. It will also continue its expansion of financial aid, adding $7 million in assistance, so far, for current students. But it is delaying several significant projects, ranging from renovation of the Hoover Institution to construction of a new mechanical engineering building.</p>

<p>After years of robust growth, Stanford's endowment, worth $17.2 billion in 2008, has dropped 20 to 30 percent in value, according to Etchemendy, who is also the school's top budget officer. Stanford depends on the endowment for almost one-third of its revenue.</p>

<p>"It is an unprecedented decline,'' Etchemendy said Thursday. In the past 45 years, the school's endowment has only dipped into negative territory a handful of times. The largest prior decline was a mere 8 percent, in 1974.</p>

<p>Some recent gifts, such as individual endowments to fund key faculty, are "under water,'' he said — meaning that they are worth less than when they were given.</p>

<p>But Stanford is faring far better than most of America's campuses, he added. And because its portfolio has enough liquidity, it has not had to borrow money to meet daily expenses, as have Harvard and Duke, he said."</p>

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<p>Duke University uses debt, cuts costs to fill endowment gap - Triangle Business Journal:</p>

<p>"Duke University is working to cut $100 million from its $2 billion operating budget and use $500 million in new bond debt – normally reserved for capital needs – to cover operations.</p>

<p>The unusual steps at one of the nation’s premier private universities are being taken because of the loss of revenue from Duke’s endowment, which is normally used to help cover operations. Investment losses shaved $1.37 billion off the endowment’s value in the last six months of 2008 alone.</p>

<p>Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, says cost reductions will be made by doing “the kinds of things you normally do when you’re looking for cost savings.</p>

<p>This last paragraph makes me wonder where the endowment money really ends up? With the students? I don't know about that.</p>

<p>Salaries represent the biggest expense for any university, followed closely by managing and maintaining buildings and infrastructure, says Matthew Hamill, vice president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Salaries and wages accounted for 48 percent of Duke’s operating expenses in fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30, 2008, according to the university’s annual financial report."</p>

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<p>Economy's</a> toll on U. uncertain - Campus News</p>

<p>"Brown's endowment has been "impacted" in recent months by the poor economic climate, Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98 told The Herald in an e-mail, although the University has not announced any specifics about the welfare of its endowment since early this fall.</p>

<p>President Ruth Simmons announced in September that the endowment had earned a comparatively strong 6.3 percent return in the fiscal year ending in June 2008 - but since then, schools around the country have reported significant losses and budget cutbacks.</p>

<p>"While we entered this period stronger than at any point in the University's history, the downturn has had an impact on our sources of revenue, including the endowment," Kertzer wrote in the e-mail.</p>

<p>Though he did not quantify how Brown's endowment had weathered the turbulent economy during the six months since the current fiscal year began, Kertzer wrote that the University is prepared to survive the harsh environment.</p>

<p>"The endowment's losses have been moderated by its highly diversified portfolio, and the Investment Office has been working closely with the (Corporation's) Investment Committee and the Budget and Finance Committee to ensure that the endowment is well positioned to weather a protracted economic downturn," he wrote.</p>

<p>The University plans to release more definite figures on the state of the endowment in the next few weeks as the University Resources Committee develops a budget proposal for the next fiscal year, Kertzer added.</p>

<p>Harvard's endowment, the nation's largest, lost 22 percent of its value between July and October, the Harvard Crimson reported in December.</p>

<p>The $8 billion loss is itself larger than the total endowments of all other American universities, with the exception of Yale, Princeton, Stanford Universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to the Crimson.</p>

<p>Harvard is anticipating further hits to its endowment, planning for as much as a 30 percent decrease in value by this June.</p>

<p>Yale's endowment fell 13.4 percent between the end of June and October, and the university may also suffer a $100 million budget deficit for the 2009-2010 academic year, according to the New York Times. Princeton's endowment lost at least 11 percent of its value during the same 2008 period, according to the Daily Princetonian.The university is planning for a total 25- percent decrease in the endowment by this June."</p>

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<p>Bowdoin’s</a> peers pursue fix in economic decline</p>

<p>"With the global economic crisis worsening by the week, Bowdoin and its peer schools have worked on plans to secure their financial futures. Bowdoin has created a financial planning model and recently approved cost-cutting measures to balance the budget, while peer schools have made other plans to suit their needs.</p>

<p>In his memo to the College community in late January, President Barry Mills acknowledged that Bowdoin, like "all other colleges and universities," has tough decisions to make. However, he added, "We are better positioned relatively than most colleges and universities to respond to these changing times."</p>

<p>"If you look at the private [colleges], because we are not heavily burdened by debt, because our endowment per student...is still pretty strong, because our student faculty ratio is 9:1 and not 7:1, and because we've managed our expenses fairly prudently over the last number of years, we sit in a position relatively favorably to many other places," he said in an interview on Thursday with the Orient.</p>

<p>In comparison with other college endowments, Bowdoin's has fared relatively well, losing approximately 20 percent since June 30, 2008 when the endowment was $831.5 million. Williams, Amherst, Colby, Bates, Middlebury, Trinity, Wesleyan, and Colgate are all estimating endowment reductions in the range of 20 to 30 percent."</p>

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<p>Before</a> crisis, NU’s endowment was healthier than at other affluent schools » North by Northwestern</p>

<p>Lyrica, a blockbuster drug developed at Northwestern with about $2 billion in worldwide yearly sales, has brought in hundreds of millions to the school with more still to come. The gift that keeps giving.</p>

<p>The other reason for the generally better fiscal health seen at Northwestern - only about 15% of financial aid is funded by the endowment. This number can sit as high as 80% (as it does at Princeton) and can be devastating in these times of negative returns.</p>

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<p>These colleges were getting WAYYY too rich anyway. They need a good dose of reality especially the lofty HYPS schools.</p>