Colleagues

At yesterday’s meeting, the Regents revised the payout (i.e., distribution) policy concerning endowments held in the Consolidated Endowment Fund. The CEF holds all of the College’s scholarships/fellowships, chairs/professorships, discretionary, etc. accounts. Under the revised policy, annual distributions will decrease 25% this year (FY 09) from the previous year. Two distributions took place this FY prior to the policy change resulting in a two-quarter distribution of $2.13 per endowment unit. The final two distributions (representing the last two quarters) of FY 09 will result in a two-quarter distribution of $1.00 per endowment unit. Thus, over FY 09, the total distribution per endowment unit will be about $3.13 per endowment unit – a 25% reduction from the prior year. Payouts over FY 10 will result in a four-quarter distribution of $2.35 per endowment unit – another 25% reduction. Distributions will then be held constant at the FY 10 level for up to four years.

At this time we are evaluating the impacts these reductions will have on our capacity to fund a range of activities across the College. All faculty who hold chairs/professorships are urged to take these reduced payouts into account in their future planning. The dean’s office will evaluate its capacity to use discretionary funds (such as the Long Fund) to continue to support programs, events, etc. We expect that we will reduce our support commensurate to the loss of funding.

B. Bruce Bare
Dean