Issue date: 1/24/07 Section: Campus

By Libby Nelson
The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern's endowment grew 22 percent during the 2005-06 fiscal year - the third largest increase among the 50 U.S. institutions with the largest endowments, according to a report released Monday.

The annual report, issued by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, showed an increase in NU's endowment by nearly $1 billion, from $4.2 billion in 2004-05 to $5.14 billion.

Though the numbers seem dramatic, Eugene Sunshine, NU's vice president for business and finance, said students shouldn't expect immediate changes to the university. Spending is not determined on a year-to-year basis, he said.

"If you just relied each year on what the preceding year's earnings were in the endowment, you could get extraordinarily wide swings," Sunshine said. "You can't run a budget like that."

The majority of the money in the endowment was donated to fund a few specific projects, which range from increasing scholarship funds to cancer research. This leaves little discretionary money for the university, Sunshine said.

NU's 22-percent gain is more than twice the national average of 10.7 percent for the 765 institutions studied.

The report listed Harvard University as the school with the largest endowment, at $28.9 billion. NU's endowment is now the 12th largest in the country, climbing two places from its ranking last year.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the only school ranked above NU to experience a greater increase, with 24.7 percent growth.

The fund is now just behind the University of Pennsylvania's endowment and just ahead of those of Emory University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago.

This year's growth came mostly from returns on investments, which accounted for 17.5 percent of the fund's increase, said Chief Investment Officer William McLean, who manages the endowment. New donations made up the other 4.5 percent.

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