Captain_Mazhar t1_jdd0q3a wrote on March 23, 2023 at 2:56 PM

Reply to comment by DrFrocktopus in Hundreds Evicted in Isla Vista by New Landlord - The Santa Barbara Independent by Croughman

As someone who works in higher education finance, it's not that simple. Endowments are not a general fund that can be redirected and tapped for revenue. Most of an endowment is made up from thousands of donors who have specifically earmarked their donations for specific uses, for example paying for more staff at a favored college, or funding research. Those are legal agreements that cannot be redirected without the consent of each donor.

The only sources of redirectable income are state appropriations and tuition/fees. They are not entailed income, so they can be redirected, however much of it is needed for upkeep/maintenance/salaries.

DrFrocktopus t1_jdd1phd wrote on March 23, 2023 at 3:03 PM

I used to work in investment consulting, specifically related to university endowments, so Im aware of the distinction between restricted and unrestricted funds. The general idea is a total cap on AUM would make universities reassess their fundraising targets. They'll have to decide between that juicy large dollar restricted donation or comparatively smaller donations that can go into their unrestricted fund. You'll probably see unrestricted funds grow as total % of AUM.