Endowment drops 19 percent

Feb. 26, 8:35 p.m.

Penn's endowment dropped 19.1 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, according to an e-mail University President Amy Gutmann sent to the Penn community yesterday evening. It fell from $6.2 billion to $5 billion from July to December 2008.

This is a slightly lower decrease than the 22.5 percent decline that colleges and universities across the United States and Canada experienced in the first five months of FY 2009.

The e-mail also announced that tuition will increase 3.75 percent for the 2009-2010 academic year, which is the lowest increase in more than 40 years, and total charges - tuition and fees along with room and board - will rise by 3.8 percent, a significantly lower increase than the school originally planned.

At the same time, Penn will raise the budget for financial aid by $17.6 million, or 15 percent, for the coming academic year. This increase is in addition to the 43 percent increase in the University's financial aid budget since 2004.

Many of the updates on the University's financial conditions were first announced at the annual Board of Trustees' Budget and Finance Committee meeting Thursday.

Though reining in tuition increases is expected to intensify budgetary pressures on the highly tuition-dependent University, the administration understands that students and families are facing growing financial stress and feels "a responsibility to relieve some of their pressure by tightening our own belts further and by continuing to manage our investments prudently," wrote Gutmann.

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