Volatile equities spur re-investment

The Board of Trustees voted Saturday to shift the College's investments out of foreign equities and into domestic ones.

Currently, just over half of the College's $438 million endowment is invested in equities. These are split equally between domestic and foreign investments.

With the change, about 10 percent of the College's endowment will be shifted from foreign to domestic equities. This year the College has $103 million in foreign assets; over the next few years this will be reduced to $66 million.

Vice President for Finance Andy Evans said the change should lead to a more stable nd larger payout. "Investing in foreign equities was the thing to do in the early 90's," he said. He explained, however, that foreign equities are volatile, making their payoff more volatile as well.

Evans said many schools with a larger endowment than Oberlin have a greater proportion of domestic investments as well. The change, Evans said, will put Oberlin more in line with these schools.

The change was brought to the Board by the investment committee. The committee is charged with determining the College's asset allocation mix. The College's investments are distributed between low-payoff, low-risk investments and potentially high-payoff, high-risk investments.

In addition to foreign and domestic equities the endowment is invested in fixed income, hedge funds, private equities and macro funds.

In other financial business, the Board formally approved the sale of $77 million in bonds earlier this year. The sale will fund the science center.

The Board also approved the preliminary tuition and fee increases for the 1999-00 school year. See related story for details (page 1).