Endowment Approaches $6 Billion

Columbia's endowment posted a record 18.4 percent growth rate for the 2006 fiscal year, rising just shy of the $6 billion mark for the University's fourth straight year of positive returns.

The endowment, which stood at $5.94 billion as of June 30, 2006 according to financial statements released on Tuesday, is expected only to continue growing over the next five years due to Columbia's $4 billion capital campaign, one of the largest ever attempted by an American university. Nearly half of the campaign's expected returns have been earmarked for endowment use.

"This was just an incredible year," said Executive Vice President of Finance Al Horvath. "If you're looking for good trends and the like, 2006 was a great springboard for a public announcement campaign." The Columbia Campaign was launched publicly Oct. 2.

Vice President for University Development Frederick Van Sickle said that the University is seeking "at least $1.6 billion of our $4 billion campaign goal in support of endowment for faculty, student, and programs-a larger proportion than the previous Columbia campaign."

Specifically, several University officials named financial aid programs as one of the biggest fundraising benefactors. Approximately $440 million has been set aside for new undergraduate financial aid endowment: $400 million for Columbia College, $25 million for the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and $15 million for the School of General Studies.

"Some campaigns at other schools might be more skewed towards bricks and mortar, but this is targeted at raising money for endowment," Horvath said.

Since Horvath joined the Finance Office in 2004, Columbia's endowment has risen dramatically. The annual rate of return on the endowment jumped from 3.5 percent for fiscal year 2004 to 15.5 percent the following year, in part due to his re-evaluation of Columbia's accounting system.

"Previously, we had taken real estate assets not part of the contiguous campus-apartment buildings part of faculty and grad student housing, for instance-and reported them at market value," he said in an interview back in May. But in 2004, Columbia started reporting institutional real estate at depreciated historical value. The change meant that the endowment growth rate for the year was revised to 10.6 percent, rather than 3.5 percent.

"The endowment is the bedrock of financial stability," Horvath said. "We are very, very well-endowed, relatively speaking. But when you look at the schools we compete against, there's a big gap that we obviously need to work through and work around as we push to remain at the front of the pack."

For the 2005 fiscal year, Columbia's endowment ranked eighth in the country. The Chronicle of Higher Education has yet to release figures for 2006.