Harvard University learns to make do with less

From The New York Times: By Harvard University standards, these are hard times. Not Dickensian hard times, perhaps, but with the value of its endowment down by almost 30 percent, the world’s richest university is learning to live with less. Gone are the hot breakfasts in most residence halls and the pastries at Widener Library. Varsity athletes no longer are guaranteed free sweatsuits, and just this week came the jarring news that professors will go without cookies at faculty meetings.

September 2009....from The Boston Globe: The total value of Harvard University's endowment plunged nearly 30 percent in the last fiscal year as the Ivy League institution's portfolio was battered by the worldwide recession, the university's management company said. The endowment stood at $26 billion on June 30, after distributions and donations, the university said Thursday. It stood at $36.9 billion 12 months earlier, at the close of the previous fiscal year.
SIDEBAR: Several of New England’s other prominent private universities also posted steep declines in their endowment funds.