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The University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art has received a gift of $2 million to sock away and then tap each year for interest earnings. The gift from an anonymous donor will provide a varying amount of interest to be used at the discretion of museum Executive Director Jill Hartz. At 3 percent, for example, the money would generate $60,000 a year. That flexibility is “rare and wonderful” and a vote of confidence in the UO leadership, Hartz said in a news release. Hartz is hoping to build a $12 million endowment that will shield the museum from cutbacks during economic downturns. A major goal of the university’s current fund-raising campaign is to build its pool of endowment funds. The total endowment topped $719 million in 2015, rising 14.7 percent over the previous year via donations and earnings. That success is allowing the UO to crawl out of the Pac-12 basement, pulling ahead of Arizona State University and nipping the heels of the University of Arizona, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute. But for the UO to attain a place at the top 20 of U.S. flagship universities, it will need a $2 billion endowment, UO Board of Trustees Chuck Lillis said in July. “It’s both possible and necessary,” Lillis said in an interview. “Most of the schools that we consider peer schools have endowments that are much larger than ours. We don’t have any choice but to get it done.” In July, Lillis and his wife, Gwendolyn, led by example with a $10 million endowment gift that will pay for two volcanology faculty members in the Department of Earth Sciences. The endowment funds — particularly those with minimal strings attached — allow the UO flexibility to opportunities. The art endowment, for example, would allow Hartz to buy an artwork that unexpectedly came on the market, mount national publicity for major exhibitions or snag a guest curator to lecture on campus. “This crucial resource will enable me to apply dollars where there is the greatest need, the timeliest opportunity, and the greatest potential for leverage,” Hartz said. ENDOWED Here are the 2015 endowment figures for the Pac-12 universities, with the percent change from the previous year. The percent change figure includes investment earnings as well as added donations for the year. Stanford University: $22.2 billion, up 3.6 percent University of Southern California: $4.71 billion, up 2.5 percent University of Washington: $3.08 billion, up 8.6 percent University of California, Los Angeles: $1.86 billion, up 7.6 percent University of California, Berkeley * University of Utah: $1.02 billion, up 21.1 percent University of Colorado Boulder: $1.09 billion, up 2.6 percent Washington State University: $885 million, up 2 percent University of Arizona: $ 767 million, up 1 percent University of Oregon: $719 million, up 14.7 percent Arizona State University: $643 million, up 2.8 percent Oregon State University: $505 million, down 1.2 percent |
