Rebutting the Endowment Critics:

The “Hoarding” Hoax and “Excessive” Private-equity Fees

Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego, expressed outrage this summer that Harvard, Yale, and other well-endowed schools have been “hoarding” their tax-exempt endowment cash, mostly, he alleges, at the expense of students.

He and others in his camp argue that Congress should override the judgement of university leaders and compel them to spend at least 8 percent of their endowment funds every year (instead of the current average of about 4.5 percent).

Had congress adopted this plan in 1990, these critics calculate that the Yale endowment would be two fifths the size it is now, $10 billion versus today’s $24 billion. 

But “sky-high tuition increases” would supposedly stop.

Are we missing something here?

Mark Anson, New CIO at Commonfund

History: CIO, Robert Bass Family, CIO, CalPERS, CIO British Telecom Pension Scheme, President of Nuveen. BA, St. Olaf College, PhD, Columbia, JD, Northwestern