Yale endowment falls 25 percent since end of June

Just two weeks before, Harvard president Drew Faust also announced that Harvard’s endowment is down more than 22 percent since June 3. Princeton’s administrators have not given an updated figure for its current endowment value.

In an open letter, Levin said that as of Oct. 31, 2008, returns on marketable securities in Yale’s endowment were down 13.4 percent. He added that this figure does not account for the full extent of endowment losses.

He then estimated that Yale’s endowment’s current value is $17 billion, down a quarter from its June 30 value of $22.9 billion. Levin added that he does not expect Yale’s endowment to resume growth until “after June 30, 2010.”

Faust told the Harvard Crimson that Harvard’s endowment may drop by 30 percent by June 30, 2009, and that the 22 percent figure which is as of Oct. 30 may not fully capture the scope of the losses.

Princeton’s endowment returned 5.6 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30. In the same period, Harvard’s endowment earned 8.6 percent and Yale’s earned 4.5 percent. All three schools had posted double-digit returns in recent years.

Harvard will freeze most staff hiring and pull back on the expansion of its Allston campus. Yale is delaying several construction projects — including its new School of Management campus, biology building and renovations to its art gallery — and possibly delaying its two new residential colleges.