The University's endowment declined 22.7 percent during 2008-09, according to the 2009 annual report released by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute.
The decline reflects a larger national trend of decreasing endowments for higher education institutions, said John Griswold, executive director of the Commonfund Institute. Of the 842 study participants, the total decline in endowments between 2008 and 2009 was $306 billion, with an average return of negative 18.7 percent, he said.
"Larger endowments in particular did slightly worse," Griswold said. "However, since June 30, markets have been rallying pretty steadily, which is not reflected in the study."
The relative recovery of financial markets recently has helped the University's endowment to bounce back, said Yoke San Reynolds, the University's vice president and chief financial officer.
"Since the study was finished about six months ago, we have recovered our endowment by 11.8 percent," San Reynolds said. "That's what the rest of the economy is doing, too. We've seen recovery."
A number of issues need to be resolved before financial markets can continue to increase, Griswold said.
"We see good earnings coming out of the corporate sector now that the government has been pumping equity into the markets," he said, "but improvements may be moderate."
Moreover, the University should be aware that the state's financial picture has yet to completely recover, San Reynolds said.
As a result, Griswold said, universities may not see much state funding just yet, even though financial markets are beginning to improve.
"The real issue for public education is finding funding," Griswold said. "Not only is money down, but demand for education is up"
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