The Gazette

Summary

Since putting into an endowment $985.9 million of the $1.165 billion it received in an upfront payment as part of a blockbuster 50-year deal to let a private collaborative operate its utilities system, the University of Iowa’s investment fund has increased $139.9 million, officials told The Gazette.

That amounts to a 14 percent increase between March 2020 and May 31 — bringing the endowment’s total value to $1.125 billion, before campus disbursements aimed at supporting the university’s strategic plan are taken out.

In December 2019 when the UI first inked its public-private partnership — or called P3 — with Paris-based energy provider Engie and investment firm Meridiam, officials modeled the endowment to increase at 4 percent a year. That would have been about $40 million the first year.

In February, the UI made good on its promise to put some of the endowment gains back into the campus by announcing plans to pull $7.5 million of the investment’s revenue for student retention and success initiatives and to support faculty research opportunities.

That first withdrawal brought the fund’s market value to $1.118 billion. And administrators last month announced plans in the new budget year to disburse another nearly $12.13 million to seven projects aimed at collaboratively advancing the university’s strategic goals.

That $12 million is under the $15 million a year that officials — at the outset — said the investment would allow the campus to return back to its “core missions of teaching, research, and scholarship.”

“The endowment is producing as expected,” UI spokeswoman Anne Bassett told The Gazette. “And while the year-one funding cycle has been completed, the university is always looking to utilize up to $15 million of the P3 non-reoccurring funds in order to further Iowa’s strategic plan.”

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University of Iowa’s public-private partnership endowment sees gains in first year