KU Endowment-funded student aid safe

By Francesca Chambers

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Danielle Rittenhouse thought she had exhausted all the financial aid resources available. The economy was down and the amount of money she had already borrowed in federal loans was high. She didn’t know what she would do.

Then, last week, Rittenhouse, a Philadelphia senior, learned she could apply for a student loan through the KU Endowment Association. Within three days she was approved. Within three more she had her money.

“I was actually more confident in KU Endowment than other banks,” she said. “In general, I was definitely nervous about obtaining a loan from anyone.”

Despite the global economic crisis, students who count on KU Endowment-funded loans and scholarships don’t have to worry about losing financial aid next semester or having more difficulties obtaining aid. KU Endowment officials said the association had no plans to decrease the amount of support it was providing to students.

This optimism comes despite a $5 million loss in total assets. KU Endowment assets were worth only $1.52 billion in 2008 compared with $1.57 billion in 2007 — a 2.9 percent decrease in value.

1891 — Year KU Endowment was founded.

$5 million — The amount of money KU Endowment lost overall in 2008.

45,014 — The number of donors in 2008 compared with 43,400 in 2007.

$94 million — Amount donors gave in gifts and pledges in 2008. They also gave $11.1 million in deferred gifts.

21 — Percentage increase in donations from last fiscal year.

$32.2 million — Amount for student support — scholarships, fellowships, awards and loans — an increase from $27.9 million last fiscal year.

Source: KU Endowment — This information was first released Oct. 24

Jeff Davis, KU Endowment senior vice president for finance and treasurer, said the loss was offset by the increase in donor contributions.

“I think we can continue to operate indefinitely,” Davis said. “I don’t think there’s a time we will not be able to operate normally.”

During KU Endowment’s 2008 fiscal year, which ended June 30, a record-breaking amount of money was donated to the University.

The increased number of donors and dollars allowed Endowment to improve student support ­— scholarships, fellowships, awards and loans — by 15 percent and increase caps on the amount of money students could borrow from endowment, even though KU Endowment lost money overall.

Jerome Davies, KU Endowment senior vice president and corporate secretary of the board of trustees, said he was not sure what to expect in the next fiscal year as far as contributions were concerned, but he said he thought donors who cared about the University would continue to give to the University, irrespective of the market.

“While it may be challenging as a time frame in our country, it doesn’t need correlate to having a bad fund-raising year at KU,” he said.

Davies said that only a few weeks ago a donor announced that she would give $20 million over several years to the University’s cancer research program.

He said it was hard for him to judge whether the amount of money being collected had significantly decreased this fiscal year already, especially if the record-breaking numbers of last fiscal year were taken into consideration, but that he felt good about the numbers he had seen so far.

But, Paul Koch, professor of business, said the situation might be more grave than KU Endowment officials were willing to admit.

“I hope that I am wrong about this, but I will be surprised if the crisis in the market and the economy does not have a significant detrimental impact on donor giving in the next year,” he said.

Davis acknowledged that the amount of money collected from donors could decrease within the next year if the global economic crisis deepens, which would substantially decrease the association’s ability to fund the University.

“I think we are forward thinking, but I think cautiously and responsibly so,” Davis said.

Yet, Kelly Welch, a school of business fellow, said about 80 percent of KU Endowment’s investments were in stocks and related assets, an investment strategy that he called risky.

Welch said he agreed with KU Endowment’s investment strategies, though because high risks have generally yielded high rewards for KU Endowment throughout the past decade.

“Their goals and their practices are in line with what is best for the University for the next 100 years,” he said.

The University’s Endowment has fared well compared with those at some other universities.

The president of Northwestern University, Henry S. Bienen, said in mid-October that losses the university’s endowment was facing would not affect students, but said the university would not likely hire any new faculty or staff members. Harvard University’s president said last week the institution was seeking to substantially reduce its budget as well.

The University of Kansas will have to cut spending next year as well regardless of increased contributions from KU Endowment. Recently, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius ordered the University to cut its 2009 budget by 3 percent.

Davis said the main point he wanted to emphasize was that the University’s community could continue to rely on KU Endowment even if it saw support to the University waning from other directions.

KU Endowment was founded in 1891. Since then it has weathered the Great Depression in the 1930s, the hyper inflation crisis that accompanied the energy crisis of the 1970s and more recently the hit the U.S. economy took after Sept. 11.

“We do have sufficient liquidity to weather this storm,” he said.

— — Edited by Becka Cremer

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