Faculty members who met last week with Harvard Management Company (HMC) President Jack R. Meyer are expressing concern over the below average performance of the University's endowment.

Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox '59 called the meeting a "spirited" discussion, saying that it focused on the endowment's recent rate of return as well as on the six-figure salaries regularly paid to top HMC officials.

"People were anxious," Fox said yesterday. "there was more concern and more interest because relatively small changes in the performance of the endowment have quite a significant effect on the Faculty's financial well-being."

The meeting came in the wake of reports last November that Harvard's endowment was outperformed by 71 percent of the nation's colleges and universities in fiscal 1992 and by 95 percent in fiscal 1991.

The rate of return on Harvard's $5.1 billion endowment has fallen below the national average since 1989. Harvard's performance has been sur. passed by at least 30 percent of universities nationally since 1987.

"The most recent financial report was a cause for concern," Fox said. "If we have another year [of below average performance], not just faculty members will be anxious."

Contacted by telephone at HMC's offices in downtown Boston last night, Meyer declined to comment on last week's hour-long meeting.

But according to Professor of Sociology Theda Skocpol, faculty members used the opportunity to solicit an explanation of HMC's investment practices from Meyer.

"Rigorous questions were asked and Mr. Meyer, an articulate and able fellow,gave us detailed answers," Skocpol said.

According to Senior Lecturer in MathematicsDaniel L. Goroff '78, who attended last week'smeeting, members of the faculty council reviewedcopies of HMC's annual report as well as a HarvardBusiness School case study examining HMC's policyportfolio.

The portfolio, established by Meyer after hebecame the management company's president in late1990, is a plan for HMC's long-term investmentstrategies.

Portfolio Diversity Blamed

Meyer has attributed HMC's recentunderperformance to the portfolio's diversity,including its relative emphasis on foreignsecurities and private placements, like realestate investments.

But Meyer has also said that the diversity willultimately prove beneficial.

"I think over time our policy portfolio willslightly outperform the average universityendowment, and I think that we will succeed inmodestly outperforming the policy portfolio,"Meyer said in an interview with The Crimson latelast year.

Fox said that Meyer's explanations allayed someof the council's concerns, adding, however, thatthe endowment's future performance remains thecritical issue.