The value of Harvard University’s endowment fell almost $2 billion in fiscal year 2016, the Harvard Crimson reports.
The Harvard endowment, which ranks as one of the largest of its kind in the world, ended the fiscal year valued at $35.7 billion, a 2 percent decline from its $37.6 billion value at the end of fiscal year 2015. It is the endowment’s largest dollar loss since the financial crisis in 2009, when the fund shed almost $11 billion. It is also the first time the endowment has posted a negative return on investment since fiscal year 2012.
Robert A. Ettl, the interim CEO of the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the endowment, repeatedly described the loss at “disappointing” in his annual report. The company came up well short of internal estimates projecting a positive return of 1 percent for the year.
Ettl blamed the disappointing return, at least in part, on the “low interest rate environment and market volatility of the past fiscal year,” but also attributed responsibility to poor “execution” on the part of management.
The Harvard Management Company is still searching for a permanent CEO after former chief executive Stephen Blyth resigned in July.
Like many universities, Harvard has been under pressure from students to alter its investment strategy, for example, by diverting funds away from fossil fuel companies and Israeli-owned companies. The university has repeatedly rebuffed these efforts, and given that oil prices appear to be recovering after a steady decline, maybe it’s time to double down?
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