NT's endowment market increase.

FirefightnRick · January 23, 2006

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/13690458.htm

Posted on Mon, Jan. 23, 2006

TU is 4th nationwide in endowments

By JOHN AUSTINSTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

The University of Texas horned the University of Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, the UT system also outmuscled USC in education's high-stakes endowment game.

USC's $2.7 billion endowment grew by 14.4 percent between fiscal years 2004 and 2005 compared with the University of Texas System's $11.6 billion endowment, which had a 12.3 percent gain, according to a annual survey by the National Association for College and University Business Officers.Universities voluntarily supplied the numbers for the survey to the Washington-based group, which has a membership that represents more than 2,500 colleges and universities.

The UT system -- the largest public university endowment in the nation -- ranked fourth overall, topped only by Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities, in that order. Princeton University ranked fifth.

"I think we had a very good year, but not a great year," said Bob Boldt, who heads The University of Texas Investment Management Co., which manages the system's investments. "It's still true that the larger endowments performed better than the smaller endowments."

Boldt attributed that to the willingness and ability of large investors to put their money into alternative investments such as hedge funds and private-equity firms.

Endowments are one of the three primary revenue sources for colleges and universities. The other two are public funds and tuition.

Healthy endowments are important because universities typically spend about 5 percent of their endowments on scholarships, endowed chairs, professorships and programs, said Brent Davison, University of North Texas vice president for advancement.

Davison characterized UNT's endowment growth as "above average."

"The market was good to us," Davidson said. "We had about $8.4 million in gifts [in 2005] that went to endowments."

The Texas A&M University System and Foundations ranked ninth, with a nearly $5 billion endowment and a 13.5 percent growth rate.

Rice University, which has $750,000 endowment dollars per student, was the only other Texas university among the Top 50, with a No. 19 ranking, an endowment of $3.6 billion and a 9.3 percent growth rate.

Nationally, endowments dropped an average of 9 percent in 2001 and 3.6 percent in 2002. The change in endowments among the 746 schools in the latest survey averaged 9.3 percent, according to a NACUBO spokesman.

The rate of growth for the past decade was 9.3 percent as well, said NACUBO spokesman Damon Manetta.

The percent change in growth did not represent the rate of return on investment: It represented the endowment's change in market value between fiscal year-end 2004 and fiscal year-end 2005.

"The markets have improved dramatically since the early part of this decade," said Dick Hoban,assistant treasurer for Texas Christian University, adding that TCU's endowment briefly hit $1 billion in 2000. "Now, we're almost back to a billion. We're almost back to the point we were."

Texas Wesleyan University did not appear in the NACUBO survey, but the university provided endowment figures to the Star-Telegram.

As of May 31, 2005, its endowment was $40 million, according to William Bleibdrey, vice president, finance and administration.

That represented a 2.3 percent increase. The university's historic endowment high was $44 million in 2000. It dropped as low as $37 million in 2002, according to Bleibdrey.

While the UT system and A&M charted healthy gains, Boldt said that in terms of assets per student, even the richest public universities will never catch the top private schools.

Nationally, the average independent university has $111,629 dollars in endowment assets per student; the average public university has $17,195 per student, according to the NACUBO study.

The UT system has $85,510 in asset dollars per student, while the best-endowed public university, Virginia Military Institute, has $221,485 per student, Boldt said.

In contrast, Rockefeller University, a private school with 193 students, has $8 million per student.

The study showed that Princeton has $1.7 million per student; Yale $1.4 million; and Harvard $1.3 million, Boldt said.

Even the University of Pennsylvania, which is No. 71 in endowment dollars per student, boasts about $212,000 per student.

Boldt said the UT system would never catch the Ivy Leagues and other rich private schools in investment assets per student. "They have too much of a head start. It's not gonna happen."

There is a chart in the paper to the right of this article that had the endowments of many of the Texas schools listed but for some reason the link to the chart is not available here.

Rick

GreenTiger_OriginalAcct · January 23, 2006

Here is the chart link:

http://www.nacubo.org/documents/about/FY05...TotalAssets.pdf

NT is at 437.

Monkeypox · January 23, 2006

NT is at 437.
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yikes.

FirefightnRick · January 24, 2006

Keep in mind that NT didn't start it's endowment drive until someting like 1981? Can't remember the year, but it's not been that long ago. The low ranking should be no surprise at all.

Rick

Edited January 24, 2006 by FirefightnRick

meangreendork · January 24, 2006

On a related note- I've read that for public colleges, tuition's STILL skyrocketing while the average number of students per instructor is climbing. Makes me wonder where my money's going.

untbowler · January 24, 2006

On a related note- I've read that for public colleges, tuition's STILL skyrocketing while the average number of students per instructor is climbing. Makes me wonder where my money's going.
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In the same place our tax dollars are going into the abyss called the Texas Legislature!!! Money wasting is the favorite past time of any type of government (public colleges included).

good_ken · January 24, 2006

In the same place our tax dollars are going into the abyss called the Texas Legislature!!! Money wasting is the favorite past time of any type of government (public colleges included).

I used to think that, and then I moved to California. The Texas legislature (who still only meets every other year) cannot hold a candle to the California Legislators.