Yes and no. Michigan does have a huge $11 billion endowment, but just as at other schools, the endowment isn’t just a giant slush fund they can use however they please. Most of it is dedicated to particular purposes, e.g., endowed faculty chairs, medical research, support for specific schools or programs within the university, etc.
And as at all schools, the university seeks to preserve most of its endowment assets while taking an annual payout to support current-year operations, thus ensuring the endowment can continue to support the university’s operations for years to come. To achieve that, the university takes a 4.% payout each year, calculated on the basis of a 7-year rolling average of endowment assets. That provides year-to-year predictability and smooths out the ups and downs of the market. As a consequence, the endowment now generates somewhere around $440 million annually (i.e., less than 4.5% of $11 billion because it’s based on an average of the last 7 years, not just current-year assets). This goes to support an annual operating budget of nearly $9 billion.