Top Schools See Growth in Investments
Reader Comments
Inaccuracies in your post
The article you cited regarding the University of Connecticut’s endowment performance during the past year contained inaccuracies and misstatements that need to be corrected.
The University did not lose $32 million on our public market investments as you state. The down market did negatively impact our investments, with the result that our portfolio lost 5.5 percent for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008. At the close of 2007, we reported an endowment value of $335 million, and in June of this year that figure was $317 million. So we did suffer an $18 million loss for the year–but not the $32 million stated in the article.
Another inaccuracy arises from citing an overall endowment value of $400 million. The University’s total endowment on June 30 was $329.4 million, including the investment pool mentioned above and $12.4 million in University endowment assets under management by the Foundation.
We would also point out that the 17 percent drop in our public real estate investments actually represents a very small portion of the portfolio. While our public market investments were lower, we actually gained 10 percent from our private real estate investments during the year. The result is that overall our real estate portfolio was down just 10 percent, compared to a global 20 percent reduction across the industry as a whole.
We don’t know if you are typically in the habit of issuing clarifications to your posts, but felt it was necessary to correct a number of the mistakes made by the original student reporter in compiling his article.
Thanks for your consideration.
