Endowment Numbers

[danefan]

As posted on AGS: The latest Endowment Numbers are out for North American Colleges and Universities. Now these numbers are for up to June 2008, so the do not reflect the large downward trend of the markets this summer / fall. From June 2007- June 2008, the average change for the endowments was a 3% loss. But in a follow up survey done in November, it seemed that the average loss from June to November 2008 was a staggering 23%. So we will likely see some sad numbers next year.

 

http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/N...MarketValue.pdf

 

Albany - $26,782,000

Bingamton - $67,060,000

Stony Brook - $113,204,000

Buffalo - $213,321,000

 

SUNY Pooled - $535,578,000

 

We are behind Oneonta - $28,483,000.

 

How can we be so far behind our SUNY Center peers?

[Phoenix]

Binghmaton was private (Triple-Cities, through Syracuse University, and then Harpur College) when it was founded in 1946 until it was absorbed by SUNY in 1965..Buffalo was private when it was founded in 1846 until it was absorbed by SUNY in the early 1960s..plus they had/have professional medical, law, etc. schools which often produce people who earn a higher salary..Stony Brook has been public since it was founded in the 1950s, but has with it engineering and medical schools which produce people with higher incomes..Albany's been public since it was founded in 1844, and until recently, mainly produced teachers, who don't often have the highest salary..Oneonta, I have no idea!

 

That said, I believe our endowment has grown significantly (minus the market turmoil over the past few months) percentage-wise over the past 3-4 years.

[alum73]

one of our big problems is we've grown so fast, we're forced to spend donations as fast as they come in which inhibits endowment growth. We've got major work for our development people.

[UA_MA_2000]

UAlbany also doesn't have an engineering school or the professional schools (law, medicine, dentistry, vet school, etc.) that produce graduates who typically donate large amounts of money in the twilight (or at any point) of their careers. Unless we get a very high percentage of graduates who each donate a smaller or nominal amount (resulting in strong aggregate donations), a school strong in the social sciences and education is great (and business and other programs too), but we're not going to produce, in the aggregate, enough graduates who will work their way into good money to donate back to the school. Not trying to be harsh or dismissive --- I'm a social sciences guy myself --- but am I right or wrong here?

[UAlbany09]

Yale has lost 25% of its endowment or 5.6 Billion dollars, Harvard has lost around the same. It's going to be a mess.

[MRSGDG]

Binghmaton was private (Triple-Cities, through Syracuse University, and then Harpur College) when it was founded in 1946 until it was absorbed by SUNY in 1965..Buffalo was private when it was founded in 1846 until it was absorbed by SUNY in the early 1960s..plus they had/have professional medical, law, etc. schools which often produce people who earn a higher salary..Stony Brook has been public since it was founded in the 1950s, but has with it engineering and medical schools which produce people with higher incomes..Albany's been public since it was founded in 1844, and until recently, mainly produced teachers, who don't often have the highest salary..Oneonta, I have no idea!

 

That said, I believe our endowment has grown significantly (minus the market turmoil over the past few months) percentage-wise over the past 3-4 years.

 

 

UAlbany also doesn't have an engineering school or the professional schools (law, medicine, dentistry, vet school, etc.) that produce graduates who typically donate large amounts of money in the twilight (or at any point) of their careers. Unless we get a very high percentage of graduates who each donate a smaller or nominal amount (resulting in strong aggregate donations), a school strong in the social sciences and education is great (and business and other programs too), but we're not going to produce, in the aggregate, enough graduates who will work their way into good money to donate back to the school. Not trying to be harsh or dismissive --- I'm a social sciences guy myself --- but am I right or wrong here?

 

 

Posted three days apart, but they state same exact thing almost dead on... is this one person posting under two names or did UA MA just re-post what was posted by Phoenix? lol Anyways, the point that you both make is dead on in my opinion, great thoughts!

[purplenorange]

Well - I don't agree with the salary info -- there's hard data on this. Albany alum have one of the highest salaries in the nation.

 

Looking at the "high earners" - that is the top 10% - Albany is the #2 public nationally, behind UVA.

Going by the average - we are still a top-ten national

 

Here's the data:

 

 

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-...niversities.asp

 

 

Bing, Stony Brook, and Albany are separated by all of $3k.

 

There another list of this sort somewhere, and if you sort by the top 10%, we come out #1 of the SUNYs. By mid, we are #3.

 

 

We need more alums to open their big fat checkbooks.

[scrabbleship]

Well - I don't agree with the salary info -- there's hard data on this. Albany alum have one of the highest salaries in the nation.

 

Looking at the "high earners" - that is the top 10% - Albany is the #2 public nationally, behind UVA.

Going by the average - we are still a top-ten national

 

Here's the data:

 

 

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-...niversities.asp

 

 

Bing, Stony Brook, and Albany are separated by all of $3k.

 

There another list of this sort somewhere, and if you sort by the top 10%, we come out #1 of the SUNYs. By mid, we are #3.

 

 

We need more alums to open their big fat checkbooks.

 

We need someone to give a big donation first to set an example. It's the classic chicken-and-egg problem. It's awfully hard to open those checkbooks to give when there's been no example and the school's most famous early alums are an actor and a dead politician.

 

We need a president to put the pressure on the guy who wrote Wicked...and Tony Sparano too...

[alum73]

There are many donors who give large amounts, maybe not enough, but they aren't always looking for publicity. If all the alumni just gave $500, we'd add 70+ million. If you look at the donations in the ualbany magazine, there are many that give more than this, but if everyone gave, the book would look like a small telephone book instead of a small magazine.

[Phoenix]

nm

[danefan]

The "simple" problem is that alumni leave UA and the Capital Region and never look back. I see this every day - my boss and the managing partner of my office are both very wealthy alumni who has absolutely zero interest in the University whatsoever. They laugh at me when I invite them to football and basketball games. I would bet that this is pretty common among alumni too.

 

I work with people from the large public schools (Michigan, Oklahoma, Florida, etc..) that have a serious connection to their school. Offices decorated, etc.

I also work with folks from DIII schools (ie, Hamilton, etc.) that have more of a connection to their school.

 

This board and the alumni and fans on it are such an anomaly. It just isn't common place among Albany alumni to care about their school.

 

Why do you guys think this happens?

 

I have a few theories, but I'd be interested to hear what others think.

[scrabbleship]

Albany is the place downstaters to when they want a break from downstate. They then realize that they don't want to be anywhere but downstate so their degree becomes a piece of paper that gets them a job and little else. Binghamton suffers from a similar problem and Stony Brook doesn't count because over 80% of their student body comes from LI/NYC/Westchester.

 

I think the relative newness of the school also has something to do with it. Hard to build the cohesion of cohorts with little to hang your hat on.

[jpg_91]

Albany not having any professional schools is the crux of the problem. It's despicable that such a large research university in the capital of one of the biggest states doesn't offer a medical, law or engineering school. If UA had any of these I guarantee the endowment would be considerably more. It would also have a greater national presence thereby making a degree from here more valuable outside of the tri-state area. Just look at the way that Stony Brook has grown relative to UA and you can see that this the answer.

[scrabbleship]

Albany not having any professional schools is the crux of the problem. It's despicable that such a large research university in the capital of one of the biggest states doesn't offer a medical, law or engineering school. If UA had any of these I guarantee the endowment would be considerably more. It would also have a greater national presence thereby making a degree from here more valuable outside of the tri-state area. Just look at the way that Stony Brook has grown relative to UA and you can see that this the answer.

 

Was Albany's choice to not pursue these in the 60's...why didn't we?

 

If UAlbany closed, would anyone or anything really suffer?

[danefan]

Was Albany's choice to not pursue these in the 60's...why didn't we?

 

If UAlbany closed, would anyone or anything really suffer?

 

The Capital Region would become a ghost town. Remember, UAlbany has an $1 billion PLUS economic impact on the region annually (that stat was found before Nanotech was introduced).

 

It is the #1 economic stimulus in the area. There are many rental property owners, merchants, SUNY employees, hotels, etc. that would not have been anything without UAlbany.

 

This is the point that gets forgotten by local pols. I reiterated this to Jim Tedisco in my recent email to him. Even though he's Schenectady and Saratoga Counties, his constituents stand to gain from a stronger UAlbany as well.