[JustAnotherFan]

I asked the Director of Finance at my alma mater if they were going to reduce tuition in light of the online classes.  Paraphrased, she said:

1)  We still have a of immense proportions physical plant, and profs and staffs to pay.
2)  We incurred LOTS of costs putting everything on line.
3)  We ain't reducing sxxt.  Or words to that effect.

This is the problem really.   For Stanford and other private national elite schools with substantial endowments the pain of using the endowment to pay bills will be painful but possible.  UofTexas and the UCs have a healthy bit of assets in endowments, but many other state schools across the USA rely almost exclusively on tuition and state funds.   And they need those tuition dollars to pay the bills.

Beyond a select group of schools this could get ugly quickly.

To pick a quick example....
Middle Tennessee State
21,000 students
$58.9 million endowment
And has an operating budget of ~$350 million
Revenue - 60% of the revenue coming from tuition and 30% coming from state aid
Expenses - 50% allocated to instruction with the other 50% spread across student support

The school can't give discounts without immediately impacting faculty salaries or student resources.   
Doesn't look like the budget really could even absorb the expenses related to modifying the support systems for virtual learning.

If students do not register (gap year, stop out, drop out) then the university needs to ask the state for funds.
And yet, every state in the USA will see massive budget problems because of their expensive battles against COVID coupled with their reduced sales tax and income tax revenue.

The MTSU endowment really is not large enough to replace a tuition downturn or a potential drop in state funding even for a semester.   

SJSU is in a better place, but not that much better.
Endowment is $150 million against a operating budget of $375 million.

I know on news channels they mention that a lot of schools may not be around for the 2021-2022 academic year if operations are impacted for the upcoming year and that's really rather sad.

I doubt many of them will tell the parents of students how dire their situation will be without registered students, but in light of their financial reality I get why a parent would get #1, #2 and even #3 from your list.

It's a bit simplistic to think that universities like Stanford are able to draw on the endowment to support operations. Most of the university's endowments are restricted as to how income can be used due to donor specifications - most of the endowment is specifically restricted to be used for grad aid, faculty salaries and department/program support. Even the later can be restricted by donor specification to use for specific types of expenses (research/instruction support, etc).  The bottom line is that these are legally binding requirements and that and only a small portion of the endowment has loose enough restrictions that allow use for operational/facilities support or administrative costs. It would take a boatload of effort to try to get donors to change/loosen restrictions on endowment use.

Two questions:

1. Does anyone know what percentage of the Stanford endowment is unrestricted?
2. Does the percentage that is restricted stay constant as a percentage of the total at the time of donation, or do investment officers have the ability to allocate certain investments to certain portions of the endowment, creating a potentially confusing shifting of restricted vs. unrestricted allocations. For example, would an investment officer have the ability to roll the dice on unrestricted donations (say let it ride on a startup venture fund) vs. restricted donations (perhaps bonds for endowed faculty chair)? Or do they need to smooth out returns across their entire endowment? I assume the latter.

[JustAnotherFan]

I asked the Director of Finance at my alma mater if they were going to reduce tuition in light of the online classes.  Paraphrased, she said:

1)  We still have a of immense proportions physical plant, and profs and staffs to pay.
2)  We incurred LOTS of costs putting everything on line.
3)  We ain't reducing sxxt.  Or words to that effect.

This is the problem really.   For Stanford and other private national elite schools with substantial endowments the pain of using the endowment to pay bills will be painful but possible.  UofTexas and the UCs have a healthy bit of assets in endowments, but many other state schools across the USA rely almost exclusively on tuition and state funds.   And they need those tuition dollars to pay the bills.

Beyond a select group of schools this could get ugly quickly.

To pick a quick example....
Middle Tennessee State
21,000 students
$58.9 million endowment
And has an operating budget of ~$350 million
Revenue - 60% of the revenue coming from tuition and 30% coming from state aid
Expenses - 50% allocated to instruction with the other 50% spread across student support

The school can't give discounts without immediately impacting faculty salaries or student resources.   
Doesn't look like the budget really could even absorb the expenses related to modifying the support systems for virtual learning.

If students do not register (gap year, stop out, drop out) then the university needs to ask the state for funds.
And yet, every state in the USA will see massive budget problems because of their expensive battles against COVID coupled with their reduced sales tax and income tax revenue.

The MTSU endowment really is not large enough to replace a tuition downturn or a potential drop in state funding even for a semester.   

SJSU is in a better place, but not that much better.
Endowment is $150 million against a operating budget of $375 million.

I know on news channels they mention that a lot of schools may not be around for the 2021-2022 academic year if operations are impacted for the upcoming year and that's really rather sad.

I doubt many of them will tell the parents of students how dire their situation will be without registered students, but in light of their financial reality I get why a parent would get #1, #2 and even #3 from your list.

It's a bit simplistic to think that universities like Stanford are able to draw on the endowment to support operations. Most of the university's endowments are restricted as to how income can be used due to donor specifications - most of the endowment is specifically restricted to be used for grad aid, faculty salaries and department/program support. Even the later can be restricted by donor specification to use for specific types of expenses (research/instruction support, etc).  The bottom line is that these are legally binding requirements and that and only a small portion of the endowment has loose enough restrictions that allow use for operational/facilities support or administrative costs. It would take a boatload of effort to try to get donors to change/loosen restrictions on endowment use.

Two questions:

1. Does anyone know what percentage of the Stanford endowment is unrestricted?
2. Does the percentage that is restricted stay constant as a percentage of the total at the time of donation, or do investment officers have the ability to allocate certain investments to certain portions of the endowment, creating a potentially confusing shifting of restricted vs. unrestricted allocations. For example, would an investment officer have the ability to roll the dice on unrestricted donations (say let it ride on a startup venture fund) vs. restricted donations (perhaps bonds for endowed faculty chair)? Or do they need to smooth out returns across their entire endowment? I assume the latter.