**** thats expensive!!!

[Columbia_Student]

<p>[Harvard</a> endowment posts solid positive return — The Harvard University Gazette](<a href=“http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/09.18/99-endowment.html]Harvard”>http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/09.18/99-endowment.html)

Harvard University’s endowment earned an 8.6 percent return during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, bringing the overall value of the University’s endowment to $36.9 billion.

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<p>USC invests in venture capital funds</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.ocregister.com/archive/index.php/t-26625.html[url]”>http://talk.ocregister.com/archive/index.php/t-26625.html&lt;/a&gt;

The university’s endowment is invested in about 80 venture capital funds, according to USC’s treasurer.</p>

<p>Hannah Kim - The Daily Trojan</p>

<p>The same website students visit to watch “The Evolution of Dance” and popular “Saturday Night Live” sketches just cashed out for USC.</p>

<p>The university will receive $14.6 million for the 30,901 shares it held in YouTube, said USC treasurer Ruth Wernig, who confirmed the university owned those shares.</p>

<p>“We had an investment in Sequoia (Capital), which invested in YouTube,” Wernig said.</p>

<p>She added the university has not yet received the money from the shares.</p>

<p>Sequoia Capital manages a venture capital fund that had invested in YouTube, according to the Associated Press.</p>

<p>USC invests in about 80 venture capital funds. The money to invest in these and other ventures comes from the university’s endowment, Wernig said.</p>

<p>It was not uncommon for universities to invest endowment money, said Lee Swartz, associate professor in the Marshall School of Business.</p>

<p>“Most private universities have substantial amounts of investment to sustain themselves,” he said. “They are continually trying to invest more money.”</p>

<p>Without investments, the value of the endowment would decrease because of inflation rates. It would also be possible, however, for investments to fail and not have any returns.</p>

<p>But Swartz said universities are also careful about their investments.</p>

<p>“Private universities have done a good job in the last decade to control risk,” he said. “They directly invest in things that go across a lot of different investment styles to diversify.”</p>

<p>Swartz named mutual funds, hedge funds, direct investment and venture capital investments as some of the investment options open to universities in order to diversify their portfolios.</p>

<p>Wernig said that USC did diversify its investments to minimize risk. USC invested in venture capital funds and in fixed income investments, which are generally bonds that have a fixed interest rate.</p>

<p>Fixed income investments have a lower risk rate but a lower return rate compared to venture capital investments.</p>

<p>Wernig said the university invests both domestically and internationally. Because of confidentiality reasons, Wernig could not comment further on USC investment ventures, including the recent YouTube investments.</p>

<p>Increasing investment is essential to increasing the endowment of a university.</p>

<p>Five percent of the endowment is spent every year, and the Board of Trustees votes on the percentage of the payout, Wernig said.

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