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Endowment Drop Is First in 17 Years

Increased spending and losing investments responsible for drop

The endowment figures were originally scheduled to be released after HMC’s board meeting Sept. 13, but University President Lawrence H. Summers asked at that meeting that the numbers be delayed in respect to the victims of Sept. 11’s terrorist attacks.

The attacks also affected meeting attendance, with roughly half of the company’s directors forced to participate by conference call after all airlines in the U.S. were grounded.

Meyer said yesterday that he is not concerned about the precipitous sell-off in the markets since they reopened after the attacks last week.

Since June 30, the endowment is a little bit ahead of HMC’s benchmarks for fiscal year 2002, he said. He declined to provide more specifics.

“It’s been a difficult start to the year,” he said.

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—Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.

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