<p>I am in the business.</p>
<p>Harvard would have prepared their performance results in compliance with the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute’s Global Investment Performance Standards:</p>
<p>[Investment</a> Performance Standards](<a href=“http://www.cfainstitute.org/centre/codes/gips/]Investment”>http://www.cfainstitute.org/centre/codes/gips/)</p>
<p>Ok…I appreciate the link. Can you highlight the specific part? </p>
<p>That is a lot of information to go through.</p>
<p>LOL! I studied that stuff for 3 years in order to get my Chartered Financial Analyst designation.</p>
<p>At this stage, I think my head would explode if I had to start going through the details again.</p>
<p>Any way, Jane Mendillo, who is the President of the Harvard Management Company, holds the CFA designation and would be sure that any public statements made were in compliance with the CFAI GIPS (otherewise, she could be subject to disciplinary action, including the loss of her designation).</p>
<p>Also, if Harvard was not in coimpliance with the CFAI GIPS all the other employees at the Harvard Management Company who hold the CFA designation would have a big ethics issue and would be required to notify their management in writing that they were not in compliance with the CFAI GIPS.</p>
<p>In addition, Harvard woud never be able to issue any debt if they were not presenting their investment results in compliance with GIPS.</p>
<p>There are people who make a career out of being experts in the GIPS and preparing investment results that are in compliance with them. </p>
<p>It’s a lot more fun to manage money.</p>
<p>I’m just trying to find in the link where it says the way the returns are actually measured.</p>
<p>I realize it is very difficult to get a CFA. :)</p>
<p>So when all mutual funds report their returns…they are using compounded returns?
Hedge funds too?</p>
<p>Anyway… thanks.</p>
<p>8.9% compounded …thanks.</p>
<p>[CFA:</a> Error](<a href=“http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/pdf/10.2469/ccb.v2005.n5.4002]CFA:”>http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/pdf/10.2469/ccb.v2005.n5.4002)</p>
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<p>This year, at least. ;)</p>
<p>Good one.</p>
<p>The 7 or 8 months from September 2008 till this spring were a time in the fixed income markets that I wouldn’t want to wish on my worst enemy.</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Endowment Fund Buys Rackspace Hosting Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Sells Acadia Realty Trust, ArcSight Inc., Douglas Emmett Inc. – GuruFocus.com](<a href=“http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=76912]Yale”>Yale Endowment Fund Buys Rackspace Hosting Inc, JPMorgan Chase &)</p>
<p>Speaking of managing money. This kind of blows me away. Seems as if Yale has a whopping $5million to manage in the stock market. I never thought I’d see the day when I had about as much money in the market as Yale.</p>
<p>I think many college funds still don’t adjust for the inflows of money (gifts) and spending when reporting the returns. Or at least places like the COHE don’t adjust for that when doing articles.</p>
<p>[Fund</a> managers paid for winning even when losing | Business: Loren Steffy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/6738096.html]Fund”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/6738096.html)</p>
<p>Not only are we not going to see any of these “geniuses” fired looks like they are lining up for record bonuses again this year. What a great country this is.</p>
<p>sm74: "Not only are we not going to see any of these “geniuses” fired looks like they are lining up for record bonuses again this year. What a great country this is. "</p>
<p>This is what I find incredibly distressing. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>[Larry</a> Summers Lost Harvard’s Money | The Atlantic Wire](<a href=“http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Larry-Summers-Lost-Harvards-Money-1741]Larry”>http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Larry-Summers-Lost-Harvards-Money-1741)</p>
<p>Alot of finger pointing going on at Harvard. I think there are plenty of folks who share the blame - which is probably why many of them are actively pointing fingers at the others - but ultimately Hubris is to blame which Harvard has no shortage of and Larry Summers seems to have more of it than anyone else on that campus.</p>
<p>re #348: “We haven’t owned any stocks in years.”, says Bowdoin President, Barry Mills:[Sustainable</a> report gives Bowdoin a ‘B’](<a href=“http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2009-11-13§ion=1&id=2]Sustainable”>http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2009-11-13§ion=1&id=2)</p>
<p>Isn’t Larry Summers the guy who got in trouble a few years ago for saying something about women and math/science? Something about women not being as interested in math/science (or something along those lines)???</p>
<p>I think the thing this Sustainable report is looking at with endowments is whether the U is investing in companies that, in their view, harm the environment or like their nemesis Wal-Mart drive small stores out of business. What they are missing is that, IMHO, what these endowments are investing in now -Private Equity, Short/Long Hedge Funds, - are much more destructive than the wal-marts of the world. If you want to get a glimpse of how these PE firms operate read Josh Kosman’s new book “The Buyout of America”. Not only has the investment decisions these endowments have made done tremendous financial damage to their institutions I think you have to question the moral and ethical implications of these risky investments.</p>
<p>*their nemesis Wal-Mart drive small stores out of business. *</p>
<p>That nasty Wal-Mart. Americans should be required to shop at smaller stores and pay their higher prices.</p>
<p>That is the same larry Summers-same guy who is now in charge of the US economy. You could argue that Harvard was not alone in it’s reckless investments-some like Yale were probably more reckless, but I don’t think any college was more reckless in their spending plans and the expectation that somehow the endowment would continue to increase 20% a year and pay for all his monumental plans. This Alston project is going to be a major, major headache for Harvard for years to come.</p>
<p>^That was the biggest reason why the FAS faculty rebelled against Summers. His comments on women were just the catalyst for getting profs from many different departments to air their grievances. But a major one was the cost of the Allston expansion.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is considering increasing the number of students enrolled in order to boost revenue:</p>
<p>[TheDartmouth.com</a> | Kim outlines College budget, potential cuts](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2009/12/02/news/budget]TheDartmouth.com”>http://thedartmouth.com/2009/12/02/news/budget)</p>
<p>Excerpts:</p>
<p>“Increased [numbers of] students, even at the current level of financial aid, would be a budget positive,” Kim said in the interview. “But we have to be sure that the student-teacher ratios don’t go up. We have to be sure the classroom experience remains of the same quality.”</p>
<p>The College can add students without building new residence halls, Kim said. Current projections suggest a 50-student increase per class would be feasible, Dean of the Faculty and acting Provost Carol Folt said, noting that this number is subject to change. The College will not increase the number of students without extensive discussion, Kim said.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Kim reiterated in the presentation that the College is keeping “everything on the table,” making strategic cuts rather than cuts across the board.</p>
<p>While College officials will work to address budget issues immediately, Kim said Dartmouth will operate under a five-year plan, rather than merely employing short-term solutions.</p>
<p>Budget planners intend to develop proposals in a transparent manner, holding open discussions with different segments of the campus community prior to the February Board of Trustees meeting, Kim said.</p>
<p>“Today, President Kim offered the most open and comprehensive account of the budget that has ever taken place at Dartmouth — or at any other institution of higher learning of which I am aware,” Trustee Peter Robinson ’79 said in a statement.</p>
<p>In the interim before the meeting, College officials will draft and prepare to implement the budget for the 2011 fiscal year, as well as analyze potential savings and revenue for both the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years, Kim said in the presentation.</p>
<p>The College will also implement a reduction in endowment spending, allocating 5.4 percent of the endowment to the operating budget in the 2011 fiscal year and 5.3 percent in the 2012 fiscal year.</p>
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<p>I thought students were supposed to COST the university more to educate than the tuition coming in. How does that square with seeing the increased number of students as a budget positive event?</p>
<p>If he really wants to see a budget positive event, make those 50 spots full paying spots.</p>