U of A - we got some money!

[zipboy]

I found a listing of college endowments as of 2005 listed at the National Association of college and university business offices. Here is a run down of the MAC schools. Note that 746 schools (I don't know how many exist counting Div 3, etc) responded and are on the list. Harvard was #1 at 25 billion. Believe me, it drops from there pretty quick. Overall ranking out of 746 with amount at the school is below.168 Miam 281 million222 Ohio 196 million239 Buffalo 172 million254 Akron 158 million264 WMU 150 million275 Ball 142 million293 Toledo 142 million314 BG 114 million427 CMU 59 million534 EMU 38 millionNIU - not on list. Can't - not on list. However, Can't was listed in the 2002 list. They were at 42 million back then in 440 place. Frankly I am shocked that Can't is that low. Everyone else kind of falls where I would expect with the exception of us being as high as we are.I hope someone who understands this better can comment, but I see an endowment as kind of your bank account. The more you have in it, the more campus improvements, improving quality of programs, etc can be done. I was pleasantly surprised that we are 4th in the league and in the top 33% of the country. Also, given all of the money that has been poured into the school over the last 5 years, it seems like we still have a healthy amount of money in reserve and can keep the improvements going. You also look at this list, and the ones at the top seem to have the nicest campuses and have done the most improvements over the past few years. No offense to BG and Can't but their campuses seem stuck in 1970.

[LosAngelesZipFan]

The U doesn't touch the endowment capital, just the interest from it. UA has had a very active fundraising and investment management group at least since I was there in 85-89. You're right, this is one way to measure institutions. Given Proenza's incredible track record to date, I would assume they are in the midst of planning some sort of "capital campaign" which would greatly increase the endowment. UA should shoot to for like a $200 million campaign with the stadium fundraising counting towards that goal.

[mrelegazna]

The U doesn't touch the endowment capital, just the interest from it.

Why?

[Big Zip]

Are you really asking that question?Money makes money. You don't touch the principle you just use the earning and actually you don't use all the earnings. You peg the earnings at something like 5% a year so as to continue to grow the endowment. So $8.6 million is spent annually from this area. Endownments are earmarked for specific things like scholarships -- so a percentage of the $8.6 million goes to endowments -- some might good to buildings, others to pay teachers etc. There are general endowments for colleges to spend accordingly as well as the general fund on campus. A separate campaign woud have to be put in place to raise money for a stadium. It wouldn't be an endowment although you may want an endowment for the upkeep. The campaign woudl strictly be hard dollars for construction. The donation would be identified as such when it is made.My WebpageYou can click the link above for further information and clarification. Or you could probably request the Foundation Annual Report for The University of Akron.

[UA Fan]

We used to have a lot more than the $158M. UA invested aggressively in the tech boom of the late 90's and made a lot of money but lost it when the bubble burst in 2000. Of course everybody lost money but it's especially bad for a school or non-profit who depends on contributions and then their money managers take a hit like that. I never heard any kind of statement from the administration about that whole episode & I think it's lost them a lot of trust, unfortunately.