This is what your econ professor would call "comparing stocks and flows" and it's a pretty common theme in critiques of university endowments. $4.3 billion cou

This is what your econ professor would call "comparing stocks and flows" and it's a pretty common theme in critiques of university endowments. $4.3 billion could pay four-year in-state cost of attendance for 36,000 undergraduates. Enrollment is 31,000. Only one graduating class would make it through before the institution shut down. The UC system endowment's return last year was 8.2% [0], or $344 million. Its budget was $3 billion. In other words, its wealth can only sustainably fund 10% of its operations, in a good year. [0] https://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/report/annual-report-2018-2019.pdf https://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/report/annual-...