[1551] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: MIT endowment...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thomas Edmund Turner)
Mon Jan 26 18:18:57 2004
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 17:55:52 -0500
From: Thomas Edmund Turner <teturner@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <1075072343.21202.8.camel@bart-savagewood.mit.edu>
(rjbarbal@MIT.EDU)
Richard, thanks for forwarding the Globe note and your comment...
It seems odd that other top universities are doing so much better with
their endowments. Perhaps MIT should simply track the "Harvard index."
+ R
Yes, Harvard has outperformed MIT by about 2% for the past
10 years and while 2% may not seem like much, compounded,
that could be a key cause MIT now faces a doubling of
budgets cuts to around $70 million for FY05.
Also in the Globe note you forwarded, blame was placed
on MIT's heavy reliance on VC funds. Yet MIT's 2003
Treasurer's Report Table 2 of investments on page 16
(at http://web.mit.edu/cao/www/cao_index_reports.html)
lists privately held investments (including VC)
as actually having INCREASED around 10% from 2002!
The same table reports that publicly traded
investments DECREASED around 18% from 2003.
So while the Globe reporter and readership may
believe the VC explaination, perhaps the real
problem is with the management of MIT's publicly
traded investments?
In any case here is the earlier AP News story about
the survey the Globe note referred to...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Top University Endowments
Tue Jan 20,12:09 AM ET
By The Associated Press
The nation's biggest university endowments, their value and their
percentage change from 2002. The size is determined by investment
performance, contributions and withdrawals. Values given in billion
of dollars.
1. Harvard University -- $18.8 (9.8 percent)
2. Yale University -- $11.0 (4.9 percent)
3. Princeton University -- $8.7 (4.9 percent)
4. University of Texas System -- $8.7 (0.9 percent)
5. Stanford University -- $8.6 (13.1 percent)
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites) -- $5.1
(-4.2 percent)
7. University of California $4.4 (4.0 percent)
8. Columbia University $4.4 (2.6 percent)
9. Emory University $4.0 (-11.7 percent)
10. Texas A&M System and Foundations $3.8 (1.6 percent)
Figures may differ slightly from those announced by universities,
because of different ways of measuring endowment, such as whether to
include money pledged but not delivered.
___
Source: National Association of College and University Business
Officers.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So if you have read this far you may wish to ask why have we not heard
from MIT's President Vest and all the rest of members of the Investment
Committee including:
Michael M. Koerner, Chairman
Denis A. Bovin
Allan S. Bufferd, ex officio
Alex d'Arbeloff, ex officio
George N. Hatsopoulos
John S. Reed
Paul Rudovsky
Anthony Sun
John A. Thain
plus Wellington Management (who the investment committee
has outsourced the management of alot of the endowment to)
as to how they plan to improve their performance?
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