College Endowments Fall as Fiscal Year Starts

In the first six months of fiscal year 2016, college endowments lost an average of 3.8 percent.

That number comes from a new analysis by Bloomberg, which compiled data from a dozen U.S. college endowment funds. Indiana University’s fund, which declined 6.1 percent, suffered the greatest loss. At 1.8 percent, Pennsylvania State University’s fund declined the least.

The numbers are worse than last year’s, when endowments grew 2.4 percent. And even 2.4 percent growth was considered disappointing compared with the two previous years, which saw returns in the double digits.

Colleges told Bloomberg that the low returns so far could be due to China’s stock market crash, a downturn in the global equities market and the rising U.S. dollar, among other reasons.