I mentioned this morning that the actual TAMU College Station dowment, as reported by the university and verified by their auditors in the NCAA financial filings, is a little over $400 million, the rest of their claimed endowment is an interest in the PUF they claim pursuant to their status as a branch of The University of Texas. No P
UF money is part of the A&M endowment. The PUF funds the AUF, which in turn distributes money to the respective systems. So, the aggy claim their endowment incluses PUF money is pure aggy bullshit. It is the TAMU system that gets the money, not exclusively the College Station campus. UT recognized this distinction and claims no PUF money whatsoever in reporting endowment figures.
For the record, as of July 31, 2018, UTIMCO was managing $44.9B, of which only $21.8B was PUF money (last I knew, the university lands were valued at another $8B).I haven't seen any recent production or royalty reports, but around $1B of new money is added to the PUF every year in addition to investment income.
One little bit of fun Del Conte is having these days deals with the alumni around Austin in the tech world. Here is something most aggys have no clue of.
George Kozmetzky was a former GI who used his GI Bill benefits after WWII to go to Harvard Business School. Afterward, he worked for Howard Hughes at Hughes Aircraft as a computer geek and then founded Teledyne. In the 1970s, he was dean of UT's business school and pushed the university into the computer age. Kozmetzky worked with Bobby Inman to build UT's computer science program. Inman was a guy who served as Director of Naval Intelligence, the #2 at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Director of NSA, and #2 at CIA. In the early 1980s, Inman used his connections to bring MCC to Austin. MCC lead to Sematech. And from that sprung the technology industry that is currently driving the Austin economy.
So a lot of the tech industry in Austin sprung up between 1975 and 1990.
Do the math and figure out the ages of the people who were starting their careers back in 1975. Dell started building his computers from his dorm room in Dobie around 1982. He is sitting on about $25B. Think of how many of those Austin computer hippies are getting ready to cash it in, call it a career, and then start managing their intergenerational wealth. How many billions do you think are going to change hands in the hills around Austin over the next 20 years. And which educational institution do you think will be the recipient of the charitable education donations associated with that money?
As it stands today, aside from tuition, considering only federal, state, and institutional funds, UT is funded at about $43k/student every year. At A&M, that figure is less than $20k. One of the biggest battles Fenves, Kay Bailey, Rex, and the rest of the crew are fighting is to get an ironclad guarantee from the legislature that alumni endowment gifts won't be offset by the legislature cutting funding to UT, thus taking away the net benefit of the donation.
Del Conte is raising about $250 mil for the SEZ, about $500 mil for the new basketball arena, and about $400 mil to endow all the sports scholarships. Well over $1B is going to flow through Bellmont in the next few years, in addition to $200 mil/yr in operating income. There is great political concern when that money starts flowing through. UT could easily show $400 mil/yr in just athletics cash flow. And that will be for at least three years in a row. And after that, there will be another capital campaign for the endowment. And, as I said, UTIMCO is already managing $45B (On the other hand aggy's TAMU Foundation, the manager of the actual aggy system endowment, has about $1.8B under management)
It is nice the aggys have finally given to update their facilities. I'm glad they are drawing attention their newfound redneck wealth. But it is an entirely different level of wealth to have so much that you dare not speak of it. The legislature is addressing higher education funding in the upcoming session. Once that gets settled, just watch what happens. It will be a fun next 20 years for UT Austin.