National Association of College and University Business Officers reported Tuesday that the rate of returns for higher education endowments of the 796 institutions NACUBO surveyed fell three percent in the 2008 fiscal year.
A follow-up survey, which 435 of the original 796 institutions responded to, revealed that the returns fell an additional 23 percent from July to Nov. 30. Despite the losses, higher education has fared better than other forms of investments in fiscal year 2008, such as the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index, which dropped 13.1 percent. The S&P 500 is an index of 500 stocks representing major industries, meant to assess the economic performance of the industries across the market.
The endowment losses have forced several universities, including Boston University, into instituting a hiring freeze. BU officials have also put in place a construction freeze, and BU President Robert Brown said staff layoffs are eminent in his town hall address to faculty and staff Jan. 22.
BU’s endowment for the fiscal year 2008 fell under the greater than $1 billion category. The schools in this category saw their endowments raised an average of 0.6 percent during the fiscal year 2008, but fell 20.5 percent from July to Nov. 30.
BU’s endowment dropped 24.1 percent since June 30, from $1.14 billion to $897 million as of Nov. 30, 2008, according to a letter Brown sent to the faculty and staff on Jan. 12.
BU ranked 64th out of the 796 schools that participated in the survey for the highest endowment for the fiscal year 2008, rising five spots since the 2007 survey.
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shoddy, not shotty
imminent, not eminent