The University’s endowment is on the rise, a University financial officer said Wednesday.
Don Lindsey, the University’s chief investment officer, said the endowment has seen a 6.2 percent increase since June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The endowment now stands at $1.054 billion, up $46.6 million from this summer.
The news comes after the Dow Jones industrial surpassed 10,000 points earlier this month, the highest level since economic turmoil began more than one year ago.
Lindsey said the endowment’s gain is not as high as the national market return, and he attributed the University’s slower growth to the fact that GW’s endowment is not completely invested in the U.S. stock market. Instead, the endowment is invested partially in Asian and Latin American markets to “appropriately diversify risk,” Lindsey said.
Still, Executive Vice President and Treasurer Lou Katz said the upswing in the stock market has increased the University’s endowment level.
“They’re going up,” Katz said of the endowment numbers. “The general market is going up, so we view this as positive.”
Katz, however, cautioned that while the endowment is on the rise and the market is looking up, GW students and their families are still feeling the economic strain, as the job market still looks grim. Employers were quick to cut jobs during the recession, but have been slow to rehire or even fill empty positions, with nationwide unemployment at 9.8 percent as of September, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.
“Part of the reason they are doing so well is because there hasn’t been much job growth, and what companies are experiencing is higher earnings,” Katz said, referring to the prosperity of U.S. companies.
But job growth is important for the University, as more than half the University’s capital budget is dependent on tuition – a level far higher than many other schools. If students and their parents are unable to pay for tuition and enrollment, then the University would find itself on unstable financial footing.
Due to job losses in the economic downturn, the University announced last year that they would allocate an additional $10 million toward financial aid to encourage prospective students to enroll at GW, and provide support for current students to make sure they could finish their education at the University.
“Ultimately, we need job growth,” Katz said.
