Give Me Liquidity! "Maybe being Harvard isn’t so great after all."

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Related, A concurrent session at SCUP–44, July 18–22: Sustaining Small Colleges: Using Models in an Integrated Planning Process

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A very nice article in Inside Higher Ed by Jack Stripling about consequences of past endowment investment practices and current changes:

If there’s any trend emerging, it’s that institutions with endowments of varied sizes are moving toward more liquid investments that allow for speedier access to cash. Met with significant demands on resources at a time when resources are dwindling, colleges simply need money now – like right now. The urgent need for cash on hand, or liquidity, has some finance chiefs looking to disentangle themselves from the complex, long-term investment vehicles that came into vogue across higher education in the last decade.

“It is definitely back to the future in terms of investing,” Nelson said. “You’ll probably see small and medium endowments looking more like they did 10 years ago.”