LoyolaUniversity’s endowment gained about $15 million since July 2009, making a 6.24 percent increase since last year.
In July 2007 the endowment was at an all-time high of $346 million and dropped 44 percent to $194 million in Feb 2009 with the collapse of the stock market.
The university’s endowment has gained a total 28 percent since then as the stock market recovered, bringing it back to about $248 million.
“Unfortunately, there is some progress, but not sufficient to have a full recovery,” said Jay Calamia, the vice president for finance and administration, in an e-mail.
The endowment is still down 28 percent from the $346 million high, but shows signs of improving.
“We’ve had good growth on that,” said university Provost Ed Kvet. “We’re still working our way back to our previous high level in a year or so.”
The university’s endowment is a collection of savings used by the university to finance operations and scholarships among other things. It is funded by donations and tuition as well as investments.
The board of trustees hired a new outside financial organization called Consultant Service Group in March of last year to revise Loyola’s investment policies.
“The trustees felt that we needed to change our asset allocations to maximize our return,” Calamia said.
The new portfolio manager has been acting conservatively, Kvet said.
There is no guarantee about which direction the market will go from here or how it will affect Loyola’s endowment, according to Kvet.
“Unfortunately, we can’t predict what the market will do,” Calamia said. “It will have to be a wait and see approach.”
Kvet said he hopes the class of 2014’s high enrollment numbers will help to restore Loyola’s endowment.
“Another nice advantage we have to remember is that we’re continuing to grow our enrollment and we’re replacing smaller classes with much larger ones,” Kvet said. “That helps because that’s more tuition dollars that are coming in.”
Sam Winstrom can be contacted at [email protected]
Pearla Mutombo-Watumba contributed to this report. She can be reached at
