College Endowments Post 16.9% Return.

The article reports on the 16.9% average investment return posted by U.S. college endowments for the year ended June 30, 2007, according to a study by Commonfund. It cites that the increase lagged behind the broader U.S. stock market. The study indicates that colleges have an average of 42% of their assets in alternative investments, such as hedge funds and venture-capital funds. It also found that colleges spent only 4.4% of their endowments in their most recent fiscal year.