<p>I have read that Columbia is concerned about drop in endowment and was wondering if anybody was aware of any specific actions that are being taken by Columbia that will impact undergraduate college experience</p>
<p>we're ending financial aid for non-new yorker students, selling our library, firing all cleaning staff, un-tenuring half the profs.</p>
<p>basically nothing major.</p>
<p>pity. </p>
<p>but really, how has columbia's financial aid been in recent years? I know yale redid their system so now my brother's paying less than he would at a UC school in CA..</p>
<p>^stacy! you of all people falling for the sarcasm :'(.</p>
<p>Nothing much has happened, budgets across the board are tightened, nothing to fin aid, workers or profs yet, but research budgets might be tightened, hiring might be low priority, community and club event might get less money, nothing essential and no single cut too deep.</p>
<p>haha oh no i got the joke :)</p>
<p>It will impact Columbia soon, and fairly significantly. The health of Columbia endowment is closely tied to New York City, especially to the real estate and financial markets. For example, Columbia is NYC's second largest landowner/landlord. Rental and lease income is a large part of the University's cashflow. It also has a larger than usual traditional equity position (mostly stocks, not private equity) that just took a big hit. And I just learned that the Law School lost several million dollars as a result of the Madoff fraud.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Cornell just announced higher than expected tuition hikes, a construction freeze, and other measures to cut costs by 10%. Apparently, Cornell will be dipping into its endowment to make up for financial aid already promised, but they can't continue to do this indefinitely.</p>
<p>As a result, I suspect that financial aid packages will be less generous than in recent years, and campus expansion plans will probably be delayed a few years.</p>
<p>I always knew that CU was the second largest holder in NYC real estate but surely that isnt calculated into the endowment is it? If Columbia were to cash in all of its RE assets in the city wouldnt that make it easily surpass the tangible networth of harvard?</p>
<p>also the maddoff scandal is a joke.... I dont understand how ivies and other intelligent institutions got burned by him when all it took was skimming the freaking trade reports and seeing that daily stock prices never matched up in real life. how that got past everyone for sooo long truly baffles me.</p>
<p>Columbia's endowment uses book value (essentially what CU paid for it decades ago) for its vast NYC real estate portfolio. In the past few decades, the value of this real estate has increased exponentially. If valued at market prices, Columbia's endowment would likely exceed Yale's, at roughly $15 billion today. This is what an ex-Columbia dean told me a few years ago. It was Peter Pouncy, who left to become dean of Amherst. (He doesn't know who I am, but I grilled him at a alumni function)</p>
<p>Selling much of the land would be unrealistic, at least in the short-term. CU needs the rental/lease income to generate a good chunk of operating expenses.</p>
<p>The greater issue isn't how the endowment will do but whether NYC will once again become the crime-ridden dump that it was in the 70s and 80s -- and when Columbia was a rather undesirable place to go to school.</p>
<p>^^ Jeez Columbia 2002, doomsayer, much?</p>
<p>"Selling much of the land would be unrealistic, at least in the short-term. CU needs the rental/lease income to generate a good chunk of operating expenses"</p>
<p>True. At least not at firesale prices.</p>
<p>The other thing Columbia needs to worry about is the Manhattanville expansion, which will likely be deferred (although I haven't heard anything for or against this).</p>
<p>The fact is, all colleges will have a drop in endowment, not Columbia alone. This may translate into accepting more students who don't need financial aid and students who have outside scholarships. I'm hoping and praying columbia doesn't compromise too much on student quality for the sake of funding and tuition--a friend in NYC interviewed a kid whose dad is worth 3 or 4 times Columbia's endowment, but whose IQ is basically 50.</p>
<p>Sorry, didn't finish the post: he'll probably get in because his dad can give the school a building or twelve :(</p>
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If valued at market prices, Columbia's endowment would likely exceed Yale's, at roughly $15 billion today
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<p>Yale's most recent figure - I believe for October end is 17B.</p>
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It will impact Columbia soon, and fairly significantly. The health of Columbia endowment is closely tied to New York City, especially to the real estate and financial markets
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<p>1) the reason they use book value for real estate is so that short term fluctuations in market prices don't swing a firms assets, thus short term plummets or bubbles in real estate have no effect on Columbia's endowment. The condition of NYC too has no imminent effect on Columbia's endowment whether +ve or -ve. For long term retaining talent, and getting top students - yes.
2)Endowment figures tanking don't cripple a university at all. Most schools have lost 17-25% on their endowments which was a year and half worth of growth, account for inflation and that's merely a reversal of 2 years of endowment growth, Columbia wasn't in poverty two years ago, to the contrary not much has changed since then, so a reversal wouldn't impact columbia much. Asset value defines a university's fortunes in the long term but in the short term, revenues and expenditure can almost be perfectly smoothed out regardless of endowment value. So the observable effect of the financial crisis on Columbia is minimal.</p>
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The greater issue isn't how the endowment will do but whether NYC will once again become the crime-ridden dump that it was in the 70s and 80s -- and when Columbia was a rather undesirable place to go to school.
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<p>welcome back, vacation went well, i'm assuming?</p>
<p>^^ Ah, that's assuming the real estate bubble is short term. It may be a medium to long-term thing.</p>
<p>I think CU better start investing in green tech.</p>
<p>^but oil prices are so low now!!!</p>
<p>I don't think green tech is necessarily a good idea, my theory is that they'll only take off if oil prices rise significantly - which they're likely to do in the long run. So if green tech only takes off after say 2010-2011, then there are much better investments in the short run and switching over to it in two years would make more sense.</p>
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welcome back, vacation went well, i'm assuming?
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<p>Eh, not posting for a few days = vacation? Heck, I've posted on this board from three continents and from 35,000 feet.</p>
<p>LoL, i guess you never give your true job (true love?) a rest eh?</p>