Ivy League universities are on a debt binge

For stewards of elite college endowments, the previous 12 months has been troublesome. All eight Ivy League faculties lagged behind the S&P 500 index by not less than ten proportion factors of their most up-to-date fiscal 12 months. These ensnared in President Donald Trump’s culture wars, together with Columbia and Harvard, are writing cheques for a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to settle disputes and regain public funding. And the endowment mannequin itself is underneath pressure. Devotion to different property is being questioned amid excessive charges, revised valuations and low liquidity. Some faculties, together with Yale, have sought to dump private-equity stakes with a purpose to increase money.