Brown University's endowment posted an 11.3% return on investment for the year that ended in June. The Ivy League school's board of directors is set for a key vote this month on whether to withdraw from Israel.
The endowment has increased to $7.2 billion, bringing the Providence, Rhode Island-based university's operating budget to a record $281 million, according to a statement from Brown University released Friday.
The endowment is chaired by Brown University alumnus Brian Moynihan. He is the Bank of America chief executive who raised eyebrows last month when he decided to take a volunteer position as president of the Brown University Corporation.
This budget accounted for 21% of total revenue and was earmarked for financial aid for students and salary increases for staff.
The sale vote, with no date announced, was a concession from university officials to students who had set up a tent encampment on campus to protest Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Voting will take place among the 54 members of the board. Perceptive Advisors CEO Joseph Edelman, one of the members, said last month that the decision to hold the vote “suggests the university's attitude toward the rise of anti-Semitism on campus.” He resigned in protest, saying it was “morally reprehensible.''
Israel launched military operations in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas that claimed the lives of approximately 1,400 soldiers and civilians. Monday marks the one-year anniversary of the massacre.
The administration promised students they would hold a formal vote on the issue of divestment. In return, students folded up tents before last spring's graduation ceremony.
Brown University was one of several universities that decided to reach a negotiated agreement with student leaders over protests on campus.
Other schools, including Columbia University, University of Southern California, Northeastern University, Indiana University, Emory University, and Emerson College, also summoned police, destroyed encampments, and arrested protesters.
The Brown Divest Coalition is calling on the board to sever ties with companies that are “complicit in human rights abuses in Palestine.”
In a letter released late last month, the attorneys general of 20 Republican-led states told Brown that withdrawing from Israel would mean “terminating existing relationships with Brown and those associated with Brown, and discontinuing any existing relationships held by the National Pension System.” “There is a possibility that the university's debt will be severed.” and other investment vehicles and otherwise refrain from engaging with Brown. ”
Rhode Island, like several other states, has laws that make it illegal to discriminate against Israel, but Brown University is not subject to those laws because it is a private university.
Recent fighting in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon has renewed calls for secession from the Jewish state, but most universities reject the idea. According to Insider Higher Ed.
Companies targeted for their ties to the Israeli military include weapons makers such as Leonardo and Lockheed Martin, as well as software giant Palantir and bulldozer maker Caterpillar.
Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan and San Francisco State University have agreed to reevaluate their investment review processes. California State University, Sacramento, made a similar decision earlier this year.
Brown's endowment is the lowest in the Ivy League. The world's richest school is Harvard University, with an endowment totaling more than $50 billion.
But over the past two decades, the Cambridge, Mass.-based institutional fund has been locked down by rival funds such as Yale and Princeton, due to bad decisions by its fund manager who charged hefty fees totaling $800 million. performance has fallen short. – Return on investment that exceeds expectations.
