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Lafalum
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portfolio taking a large hitSpoke this weekend with a a board member who was unwilling to give an exact number but said the loses in the portfio at the end of Sept were "around 130,000,000 dollars" down from the top.I can't believe Oct has treated it any better.
There is a lot of nervousness surrounding the need for aid ergo the attempt by Weis to do away with the trustee scholar program (8000 dollars in merit aid) which was rebuffed by the BOT.
Silent campaign is not bringing in the dollars they had hoped. Also heard there were some large donors who want more in the budget for athletics given that the budget, minus some large donations from individuals specifically for athletics, has not been raised significantly for over 15 years.
Its getting a little testy.
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The Maroon
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Sorry about the completely non-sensical nature of this post, I just got going.
I think it's pretty safe to say we're all in angst over the current "situation." We hear economist after economist tell us how screwed we are so any discretionary income is being guarded right now...I get annoyed the way the term "depression" is so loosely thrown around as any student of history will say it's a bit premature to start talking in such terms. Let's wait until unemployment closes in on 10%, rather than the 25% or so it was during the depression. That's just one of the thousands of differences. We are looking at an expensive credit market, unemployment possibly approaching 10% and a ridiculous deficit. Ugly times to be sure, but more like 1983 than 1933.
By the way, if you ever want a good laugh watch CNBC before the market opens and they'll tell you what they think will happen and they are worse than the most inept of weather forecasters. A few hours later they can tell us WHY what they predicted would happen didn't happen...but it hardly helps.
Oh...who the hell am I kidding? Lafayette isn't running on my funds. Although I have to believe even the heavy hitters are a bit affected by the current fear surrounding things.
Just so I actually sort of stay on topic--what exactly is down around 130 million? The annual budget? The endowment? The Friends of Lafayette basketball budget?
Where do these heavy hitter alumni want the money spent in athletics? Are they upset about coaching salaries? Are they upset about the current state of the women's soccer team like I am? We've certainly upgraded our facilities across the board--the next leap would be making Kirby a basketball only venue with permanent seating, but I don't even know if that's on the table.
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Lafalum
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Sorry if I wasn't clear we were talking about the endowment. That of course effects the budget since they spend about 5 pct of the endowment ( its some sort of rolling average) every year. Bottom line means there will be 5 mio dollars less every year to spend. ( based on an enddowment that went from 800 mio to something less than 670 mio)
Regarding athletics.....the athletic endowment that they raised the last time is nearly gone which means more will have to be raised. The queston is how much. If you need to spend 2 mo more each year to fund the dept ( about 1 mio as been coming from the friends organizations and mio came from the past endowment) then you need 40 mio in endowment not the 20 they were talking about..... at least according to this person.
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TheTruth
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Interesting stuff lafalum. Keep posting.
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Pard94
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Let me preface this by saying I have no idea what I am talking about. I am absolutely confident that really negative effects are just around the corner. If we look for any silver linings in all of this mess, however, I would start with the fact that I spent $2.92 on gas this morning. I haven't been able to do that in a long time. Also the dollar is as strong as it has been in a long while against foreign currencies. Now I am no economist by a long shot...perhaps these two indicies are actually the proverbial canaries in the coal mine that predict our iminent doom. That being said, it seems as though if you don't have your money tied up in stocks, real estate of financial organizations and you are fairly young, you may actually be fairly well positioned to ride this one out. I'm certainly not blind to the fact that small business owners and those who perhaps planned to retire or have just retired are probably in real trouble. With all of the bail outs and measures taken on the global scale is it possible that we may have dodged a bullett here? Because I have to be honest...so far it doesn't even feel as bad as the post 9/11 recession, let alone 83 and certainly not the Great Depression. Now I realize that I am gainfully employed and I'm not trying to buy a house and/or car and I am not living on a 401K but am I the only one who feels like this event is not living up to the hype?
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carney2
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| Pard94 wrote: | | am I the only one who feels like this event is not living up to the hype? |
Give it time. The stock market finally "crashed" on October 29, 1929 after a week or so of "crashlets." Your forebears were not on the street selling apples on October 30th. The depths of the Great Depression were still years away.
This is not to say that we are headed down a parallel road. It is to say however, that if things are to get bad, think in years, not weeks or months.
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Franks Tanks
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| carney2 wrote: | | Pard94 wrote: | | am I the only one who feels like this event is not living up to the hype? |
Give it time. The stock market finally "crashed" on October 29, 1929 after a week or so of "crashlets." Your forebears were not on the street selling apples on October 30th. The depths of the Great Depression were still years away.
This is not to say that we are headed down a parallel road. It is to say however, that if things are to get bad, think in years, not weeks or months. |
The govt. has shown it will try to help the economy weathe rthe storm as much as possibe, but yes we are in for a recession that may last a while. As Pard said some fundaments seem ok like commodity prices and the dollar, but the trouble in the credit markets, falling house prices, high unemployment, and terrible consumer confidence are real problems that will take a while to fix. Those of us who live within our means will be fine, but many American families will struggle.
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ranger
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Would not surprise me if endowment is down $250,000,000 at end of October. Too much money in hedge funds that were not hedged. Bill Simon got it right in '87; I pray Peter Simon gets it right in '08.
Weiss is an academician pretending to be a football fan who won't increase athletic budgets. Reminds me of Kissiah on the sidelines wanting to be seen as friend of football. Maws & Paws and Friends of Football don't invite him or want him at their tailgates. Real Friends of Football will give to football not the Campaign for Faculty( so our faculty can teach 2 courses a week and "research" the rest of the time). The Campaign will fail; Weiss will blame Dicker but, will see the writing on the wall and be gone unless the leaderless BOT wakes up first. The next guy or gal will have to clean up the mess of bloated faculty and staff, reduced endowment, and angry alumni.
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TheTruth
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I think most colleges..let me correct that....all colleges will take a hit in their endowment. Hopefully our debt load is low and can weather the storm with out a double digit tuition hike. Bad times are coming. Don't be surprised if the number of applications is down this year. parents may re-think private schools versus state school.
I hope Weiss doesn't expect Jim Dicker to perform a miracle in this economy. We may continue to bring in gifts but no one is going to give to their fullest potential in this economy. too much uncertainty: election, world markets are dropping, housing crisis, credit crunch, stock market roller coaster, bad hair day, Miller Lite vs. Bud Light, etc.
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Lafalum
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| ranger wrote: | Would not surprise me if endowment is down $250,000,000 at end of October. Too much money in hedge funds that were not hedged. Bill Simon got it right in '87; I pray Peter Simon gets it right in '08.
Weiss is an academician pretending to be a football fan who won't increase athletic budgets. Reminds me of Kissiah on the sidelines wanting to be seen as friend of football. Maws & Paws and Friends of Football don't invite him or want him at their tailgates. Real Friends of Football will give to football not the Campaign for Faculty( so our faculty can teach 2 courses a week and "research" the rest of the time). The Campaign will fail; Weiss will blame Dicker but, will see the writing on the wall and be gone unless the leaderless BOT wakes up first. The next guy or gal will have to clean up the mess of bloated faculty and staff, reduced endowment, and angry alumni. |
The endowment problem lies right at the foot of the BOT. Fifty percent of the endowment is in Hedge Funds and" alternative investments" according to the college's last tax return. I know for a fact that the BOT was cautioned and warned in a meeting of the full BOT of the folly of 50% allocation to Hedge Funds year's ago. That warning was given by several members of the BOT who are no longer on the Board. (not surprisingly). As for Weis, shrinking the the student population, and raising the faculty population while increasing the tuition last year 7% was a bonehead move. (sorry Dan) But it illustrates what a bunch of sheep this BOT is. Even the committees are populated by emeritus members of the BOT that are too old to serve on the regular Board. WE NEED A HOUSECLEANING!!!
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ranger
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This BOT has got to go. If I let our potfolio decline by 30% after being warned, my wife would get rid of me. This BOT brings back emeritus trustee to be secretary of Board because it doesn't want new blood in leadership positions. Watch out Division III idea will soon resurface to save money because because these guys and gals made bad endowment bets. I mean bets not investments.
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Lafalum
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A new dean of diversity (200k) from Middlebury, a new communications guy from Johns Hopkins (?) I understand coming down the pike....look out people the vibes are not looking good!! Are we gearing up for another fight!!!
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Franks Tanks
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| ranger wrote: | | This BOT has got to go. If I let our potfolio decline by 30% after being warned, my wife would get rid of me. This BOT brings back emeritus trustee to be secretary of Board because it doesn't want new blood in leadership positions. Watch out Division III idea will soon resurface to save money because because these guys and gals made bad endowment bets. I mean bets not investments. |
No way on the D-III issue. We just pumped 30 million into the stadium only to move to D-III--keep dreaming. We are more committed then most patriot league teams to FB. Guess what our peers are also impacted by declining endowments, but we would not set the trend on this. The issue may be G-Town dropping FB due to decreased available funds, but I dont see that happening.
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