[unclebucknasty]

>You can certainly do it, in a true emergency. But you certainly don't want to make a habit of it.

Harvard's endowment returned 9.6% last year, growing the total by $2.5 billion. In the previous year, the endowment returned 2.9%, though the total endowment decreased as the gain was offset by contributions to operating expenses. [0]

In other words, Harvard already operates somewhat from their endowment, and can realize net endowment gains in spite of that.

[0] https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/10/financial-report-fis...

[gruez]

>In other words, Harvard already operates somewhat from their endowment, and can realize net endowment gains in spite of that.

The argument isn't that Harvard should never draw from its endowment, like it's saving for retirement or something. The argument is that they shouldn't raid endowments by doing additional withdraws to fund the current shortfall.

[unclebucknasty]

>The argument isn't that Harvard should never draw from its endowment, like it's saving for retirement or something

The argument I was replying to was actually of exactly this form.

That argument also implied that any endowment spending to cover shortfalls would necessarily be of the principal, but that is also incorrect.

In fact, the White House just responded with a $2.2B funding freeze—an amount that would have been covered by last year's endowment return.