{"id":8163,"date":"2025-05-09T09:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T13:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/?p=8163"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T13:46:10","slug":"colleges-are-liquidating-private-capital-assets-in-response-to-the-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/2025\/05\/09\/colleges-are-liquidating-private-capital-assets-in-response-to-the-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Colleges are Liquidating Private Capital Assets in Response to the Trump Administration\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thaddius A Gamueda<\/strong>
\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s administration has begun to cut funding to high profile colleges in the United States based on DEI initiatives and failures to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests during the last year. As of April 24<\/span>th<\/span>, around $2.2 billion has been cut from 7 top universities in the United States, 6 out of the 7 being Ivy Leagues. Harvard has led the resistance against the cuts by suing the Trump administration and many colleges are joining the suit. These recent events have created many new financial challenges for these colleges that have led to universities making tough decisions to cut their funding.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New Liquidity Challenges Colleges Face\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo Courtesy of BWCentral<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To begin with, colleges, especially the Ivy League, have historically been some of the top investors for private equity (PE), which are usually classed as a long-term, illiquid investment. As these federal funds are being cut, colleges are having trouble financing themselves. According to <\/span>Commonfund.org<\/span><\/a>, the 658 colleges in America hold an endowment of $873.7 billion, and use only 15.3% of it as operating expenses. Yale and Harvard are in the top 30 largest PE investors on the planet and two of the pioneers when it comes to private equity investing for colleges. <\/span>Axios<\/span><\/a> states that Harvard uses 39% of its $53.2 billion endowment to invest in private equities and <\/span>CTPost<\/span><\/a> reported that Yale uses 45% of its $41.4 billion to invest in private equity as well. Because of the fears of having federal funding cut, Yale has begun a $6 billion sale of their private equity portfolio into the secondary market while Harvard is leading the charge because of their new suit. Now we know how much some of the top universities invest in PE, what has come from these investments?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What Inovations have been made possible by University PE Investment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Private equity investments by university endowments have supported breakthroughs across multiple fields:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n