Re:Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding...
by unclebucknasty on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @07:33AM
(#43691357)
>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.
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.