University Business - January 2009 - (Page 8)

BEHIND the NEws For 30 years, the NatioNal association of College and University Business officers has conducted a survey of higher education endowments, and for the past decade the Commonfund institute has issued its Benchmarks study of endowments. Because some areas of the two organizations’ questionnaires overlap, the partnership announcement made by the two organizations in November is a logical one. The first “NaCUBo-Commonfund study of endowments” will cover endowment investment performance, asset allocation, and related finance and governance issues. “Making things easier for our combined constituencies made a lot of sense,” explains Verne o. sedlacek, president and Ceo of Commonfund. approximately 800 institutions have participated in each individual study, and 66 percent have done so in both. U Commonfund and NACUBO Partner for Joint Study “We are always pleased to see consolidation of efforts like this since it means we can be more efficient, which helps control costs,” says Karen leach, vice president of finance and administration at Hamilton College (N.y.), a participant in the NaCUBo survey for many years. “The kinds of data that are collected by these studies allow us to compare and fine-tune our strategies. The ultimate goal is to increase resources to continually improve the education we provide.” as for endowment study resources, the historical databases of the surveys will be centralized and warehoused for access and use by institutional leaders and scholars. The new study, which will provide thought leadership on endowment management, is meant to be the single source for institutions to benchmark themselves against their Mahlon lovett, office of Communications, Princeton University peers to achieve optimum results and support their missions. With all the public scrutiny endowments have experienced in the past few years, the comprehensiveness of the study will also benefit colleges and universities on the transparency front. “The more people know about the purpose of endowments, the better off we are,” says John Walda, president and Ceo of NaCUBo. The study, he adds, “will provide a fuller picture” on endowment earnings and how endowment money is spent, as well as better analysis and commentary, which will result in greater transparency. The first report, covering fiscal year 2009 and to be released in January 2010, will include institutions with endowments ranging from at least $1 million to more than $1 billion. —Melissa Ezarik Robertson Trial Averted iN early DeCeMBer, PrinCeton aNnounced a settlement had been reached in the legal dispute over control of the robertson Foundation, preventing the need for a trial and saving both parties millions of more dollars in legal fees. the robertson Foundation was endowed by Marie robertson in 1961 to support the graduate program of the Woodrow Wilson school of Public and international affairs. six years ago, robertson family members sued the university for control of the endowment after they disputed the choice of an investment firm for the foundation. the key resolution in the dispute is that the foundation will be dissolved, with most of the assets transferred to an endowed fund solely controlled by the university. Princeton will also use part of the funds to “reimburse the Banbury Fund, the charitable foundation that the robertsons used to pay their legal bills,” said shirley M. tilghman, the university’s president, in a statement. “We continue to believe that this was an inappropriate use of the Banbury Fund’s assets, and we hope that as a result of the reimbursement the Banbury Fund will return to funding the charitable purposes for which it was established by Marie and Charles robertson (’26) more than 60 years ago.” additional funds will go toward a new charitable foundation cre- ated by the robertsons to encourage students at other institutions to prepare for careers in government service. this is compatible with the goals of the Woodrow Wilson school, tilghman wrote. one of the challenges faced by Princeton’s leaders during the course of the trial was ensuring that proper information about the case was available to the media. the university quickly realized that, since the family had an aggressive Pr strategy, the usual “no comment” policy adopted by most colleges and universities was not appropriate. the media relations team created a website to clarify points and regularly reached out to news outlets to correct misconceptions. Despite court papers filed to make the settlement official, the university’s battle to clarify the facts of the case continued. the day the settlement was announced, Cass Cliatt, director of media relations, sent another e-mail to reporters announcing that the family was understating the foundation’s value by $100 million. “so while we typically don’t as a policy calculate endowment performance incrementally for the purpose of release, we wanted to acknowledge that the endowment has not been immune to the economy since the last reporting period valued the robertson endowment at more than $900 million,” she wrote. —Ann McClure 8 | January 2009 universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - January 2009

University Business - January 2009
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Financial Aid
Community College
From Data to Information
5 Reasons to Switch to Virtual Servers
Finished in a Flash
Internet Technology
What's New
End Note

University Business - January 2009