After global economic troubles for more than a year, the endowment for Syracuse University bounced back for the 2010 fiscal year and was ranked higher in comparison to those of many other institutions.

SU’s endowment increased by 29 percent from $658 million to $849 million, according to the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. Among 865 U.S. and Canadian institutions that were ranked by their endowment market value for the 2010 fiscal year, SU came in at 76th, according to the NCSE.

‘We’ve made significant gains after the effects of an 18-monthlong global crisis,’ said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs.

The 29 percent increase in the endowment market value was a result of the university’s investment performance and gifts to SU, Quinn said. Long-term fixed income investments that had not been a part of the university’s endowment were also transferred during the 2010 fiscal year, he said.

The endowment provides the annual income for the university’s overall budget and for specific budgets across campus, Quinn said.

SU’s endowment funds were allocated to four different categories, according to the university’s website: 11 percent to educational and other funds, 13 percent to professorships, 34 percent to scholarships and 42 percent to general uses.

At 17.2 percent, SU’s investment return for the 2010 fiscal year — the period from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010 — was higher than the national average. The national average for institutions’ investment return was 11.9 percent, according to the NCSE.

‘A high return is a goal that all universities want to meet,’ Quinn said.

The investment returns were an improvement from those recorded in the previous fiscal year. The national average investment return was -18.7 percent for the 2009 fiscal year, according to the NCSE. SU’s investment return for that period was -25.5 percent, according to its website.

The study results were based on data from 850 U.S.-based participating institutions, according to the NCSE. The increase in the investment return for the 2010 fiscal year is primarily due to improvements in the stock market, said Kenneth Redd, director of research and policy analysis at NACUBO.

More than half of an institution’s assets are usually invested in stocks, Redd said. When stocks improve, it helps to increase the endowment funds for the institutions that invested in those stocks, he said.

The asset allocation for SU’s endowment fund spanned five categories, most of which were invested into U.S. and international equities at 31 percent and 27 percent, respectively, according to the university’s website.

SU allocates more of its assets to equities than the national average amount. Institutions invested an average of 15 percent in domestic equities and 16 percent in international equities, according to the NCSE.

‘When you’re investing in the stock markets, you’re going to have a lot of fluctuation year to year in terms of the investment return,’ Quinn said.

The goal is to have a ‘long-term, positive return,’ he said.

SU’s asset allocation for its remaining funds were distributed to private equity at 25 percent, hedge funds at 11 percent and fixed income at 6 percent, according to the university’s website.

In the past, SU’s endowment fund totaled $1.086 billion for the 2007 fiscal year and $1.005 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, according to its website.

The national endowment funds are still about 25 percent below those recorded from before the recession for the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years, Redd said.

‘They will probably reach that level again in the next year or two, but that is a conservative guess,’ Redd said. ‘But it certainly will happen.’

shkim11@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm