Ramifications from the troubled credit markets touched home last week as the University found $100,000 it had invested in a short-term fund managed by Wachovia Bank had been frozen, according to Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli.
The money was held by Commonfund, a nonprofit management firm for educational investments. The fund contained $9.3 billion shared among almost 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide. Wachovia held the funds through its role as a trustee of the organization, which it resigned last Monday.
The bank cited a liquidity squeeze and the market environment as reasons for the freeze. It may be purchased in coming days by either Citigroup or Wells Fargo.
As of Friday, Penn, along with the other schools, regained access to 34 percent of funds held by Commonfund.
Though Penn had relatively little money in Commonfund, many other universities had large sums that covered operating costs such as salaries and campus construction projects. The University of Vermont, for instance, held around half of its liquid-operating costs - about $79 million - in the fund, The New York Times reported.
