Local Universities See Endowment Gains

College and university endowments are growing again. But as Dave DeWitt reports, the gains are not enough yet to cover losses over the last five years.

Dave DeWitt: Endowments are the financial engine of any college. They fund financial aid, professorships, and other vital operations. And those engines are back in better tune now, after the recession, but there’s a rough road ahead. Across the country, endowments returned more than 19% of their investment in the fiscal year that ended this past June. That’s similar to the rates earned prior to 2009. But most college endowments are not yet back to pre-recession levels. Duke still has the largest endowment of any university in North Carolina at $5.8 billion, up nearly $1 billion from last year. The largest single increase came at UNC-Charlotte. That school’s endowment grew by 33 % to $140 million. University officials are planning for smaller growth next year, due to financial instability in Europe.