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VOLUME 59, ISSUE 53 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2025 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM
Endowment rebounds The endowment rose by 10% to reach a record $17.9 billion By ZACK POHLMAN Staff Writer
Notre Dame’s 2024 Annual Report announced a 10% return on the University’s endowment, bringing its total value to $17.9 billion. The total value of the University’s investment portfolio, which encompasses the endowment, working capital and additional assets, is now $20.4 billion. Coming on the heels of two consecutive years of little to no growth, the University’s portfolio rebounded. In the past, the main driver of the endowment pool’s growth has been the University’s investments in private equity. “The endowment portfolio has an equity bias, given that both public and private equity have well outpaced investment returns on other assets
over longer timeframes,” Tim Dolezal, vice president and chief investment officer, said. “We target 40% to private equity, 35% to public equity and 25% to our lower-risk multistrategy portfolio.” In 2024, the stock market managed an 18.4% return, while private markets remained relatively constant. They have been relatively quiet in recent years while waiting for economic activity to pick back up.
ZACK POHLMAN | The Observer
After decreasing in value in the prior two fiscal years, the University endowment rose to nearly $18 billion with a 10% return in 2024.
“You were seeing limited amounts of M&A [mergers and acquisitions] activity post-COVID, and because of that, the demand for buying these companies is going down,” Jason Reed, associate faculty director of the Notre
EIC selects new Editorial Board Observer Staff Report
Nine department heads will complete The Observer’s 20252026 Editorial Board, incoming Editor-in-Chief Liam Kelly announced Tuesday. “The members of the incoming Editorial Board have proven themselves during their tenure at The Observer thus far, and I’m sure they will continue to do excellent work to ensure the paper’s success,” Kelly said. The nine department editors will join Kelly as well as Managing Editor Gray Nocjar and Assistant Managing Editors Aynslee Dellacca, Grace Tadajweski and Henry Jagodzinski in handling the editorial responsibilities of the paper. Freshman Sophie Hanawalt will take over as Notre Dame News Editor. Hanawalt, a global affairs major, is from Birmingham, Michigan, and lives in Welsh Family Hall. She
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Dame Institute for Global Investing (NDIGI), said. “Then the price that company would pay in the market would go down, right? And therefore returns would also go down.” According to the report, one of the key guiding principles of the endowment is its “intergenerational time horizon.” The growth of the endowment benefits not only current students, but also future generations —
previously served as a staff writer and associate news editor, covering student protests, housing issues, the impact of federal policies on the Notre Dame community and more. Sophomore Noah Cahill, a Fisher Hall resident from Farmington Hills, Michigan, will serve as Sports Editor. Cahill joined The Observer in August 2023 and has covered soccer, football and lacrosse. He is a double major in psychology and American studies and served as associate sports editor on the football beat last semster. Berhan Hagezom, a freshman neuroscience and chemistry double major at Saint Mary’s from Las Vegas, will serve as Saint Mary’s News Editor. Hagezom has worked as a staff writer under the Saint Mary’s news department this semester and has written a dozen articles covering see ED BOARD PAGE 4
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those who will be at Notre Dame 10 or even 20 years from now. With a focus on long-term returns, the investment office places less emphasis on short-term see ENDOWMENT PAGE 3
CDems and CReps clash over Trump By SOPHIE HANAWALT Associate News Editor
The Not re Da me College Democrats Execut ive Boa rd posted a letter last Wednesday request ing Universit y President Fr. Rober t Dowd ref ra in f rom inv it ing President Tr ump to spea k at commencement t his yea r. The letter ser ved as a response to The Obser ver’s recent editoria l, which ca lled for Tr ump’s inv itat ion. Yesterday, t he Not re Da me College Republica ns Boa rd posted a response to t he College Democrats statement, t it led “Keep t he Tradit ion.” Presidents who have spoken at Not re Da me commencement include Dw ight Eisen hower, Jimmy Ca r ter, Rona ld Reaga n, George H.
W. Bush, George W. Bush a nd Ba rack Oba ma. The College Democrats’ letter a rg ued t hat Tr ump’s policies sta nd in opposit ion to Cat holic Socia l Teaching (CST) a nd t herefore Not re Da me’s va lues, cont rast ing mass inca rcerat ion a nd immig rat ion policies w it h statements f rom Pope Fra ncis a nd t he United States Conference of Cat holic Bishops. In t heir letter suppor ting Tr ump’s prospect ive inv itat ion, t he College Republica ns addressed t his connect ion bet ween CST a nd immig rat ion policies, w rit ing, “pr udent ia l border cont rol is not uncat holic,” a nd ma k ing t he case t hat Cat holic teachings enable see TRUMP PAGE 3
Professor speaks on Central American corruption By DAVID MURPHY and JESSICA MAYOR Staff Writer and News Writer
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies hosted University of Oklahoma professor Rachel Schwartz on Tuesday to discuss international anti-corruption efforts. Schwartz, author of the award-winning 2023 book “Undermining the State from Within: The Institutional Legacies of Civil War in Central America,” began the lecture by expressing the importance of corruption as a crisis not only at a domestic level but also at an international one. “So corruption, as I’m sure many of you know, has long been considered a dire challenge when it comes to development at the domestic level,” Schwartz said. “But I think in recent decades, we’ve seen a growing conversation, growing recognition, that corruption is not just a development problem, it’s also a pressing international security
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challenge as well.” Schwartz’s lecture focused on the role of International Anti-Corruption Commissions (IACCs), in which international experts collaborate with domestic governments to investigate and prosecute corruption, raise anti-corruption awareness and propose institutional reforms. Though supportive of the roles IACCs play in combating corruption, Schwartz was careful to note their limitations. “There’s a catch here, which is that these kinds of shared sovereignty arrangements … entail significant domestic government authority over what these kinds of initiatives actually look like,” she said. “Domestic political actors must authorize the introduction of entities like IACCs … and so this leads to the potential that domestic governments can limit the scope of an IACC’s work.” In her lecture, Schwartz explained the varying degrees of autonomy domestic governments
are willing to lend to these organizations and how this influences their effectiveness. In answering these questions, Schwartz examined the role of IACCs in several Central American nations. From these case studies, she found the conditions pressuring countries into establishing IACCs heavily influence their autonomy and, thus, effectiveness. “The first distinction that I draw is whether IACC pressure is primarily derived from civil society mobilization or whether it occurs through the initiative of domestic leaders who are guided by more self-interested and particularistic motives,” Schwartz said. “In some cases, IACC pressures may come from outside governments as well as domestic civil society. I argue that this process, this kind of pressure, is more likely to induce [highly] autonomous commissions.” Schwartz specifically called
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see LECTURE PAGE 3
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