With the declining economy, some high profile universities are seeking to ditch troubled chucks of their endowments, says today’s New York Times. One of the schools that it highlights? The University of Virginia.
The Gray Lady reports that only 21 percent of UVA’s investment pool was in so-called liquid assets—the kind you can cash out when you want—and that the University "plans to sell at least several hundred million dollars in those assets and a comparable amount in its hedge funds through 2010 to meet its capital calls from private equity funds, resource managers and others."
The Times is even able to wrangle out a colorful quote from UVA, albeit one gathered on condition of anonymity.
"It is a little like having to go to a pawn shop,” a UVA endowment manager anonymously told the Times. "People don’t want to admit they have to sell this stuff."
As C-VILLE recently reported, the University’s endowment lost 11 percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
UVA’s chief operating officer, Leonard Sandridge, reiterated to the Times what he told C-VILLE, which is that the school has no liquidity issues. Two weeks ago, Sandridge told C-VILLE that UVA didn’t have liquidity problems because it had a good credit rating.
