The university endowment continues to increase in value, and administrative planning for the university’s upcoming fundraising campaign is ongoing, despite the residual effects of both the recession and administrative changes within the Office of Advancement.

Through fiscal year 2009, the investment office adopted a defensive financial position, protecting against volatility through investment diversification. As a result, the university portfolio has been able to weather market downturns and benefit from positive macroeconomic factors. Consistent with the performance of the stock market, the endowment returned nearly 8 percent in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, according to Alex Douglas, administrative assistant in the investment office.

In a faculty town hall meeting on Jan. 22, University President John J. DeGioia discussed the progress made as a result of the improved financial situation, citing the resumed construction of a new science building on campus following receipt of federal stimulus money and Georgetown’s work towards, its long-standing goal of both broadening and strengthening financial aid offers.

The investment office has also taken steps to increase the endowment’s liquidity, a move that ensures the availability of funds in case of emergency. In September 2008, for example, Georgetown could convert 20 percent of its endowment into cash in one month. That amount, which has since climbed to 40 percent, is indicative of the university’s greater confidence in its ability to mitigate financial risk, according to the investment office.

Efforts to manage the endowment have been in transition since the departure of Vice President of the Office of Advancement James Langley, the administrator responsible for managing Georgetown’s fundraising campaigns, on Jan. 20.

The university is working with Langley’s replacements, R. Bartley Moore and Paul O’Neill, to ensure that its administrative support structures are set in time for a $2 billion fundraising campaign set to begin next September. The university declined to give an explanation for Langley’s sudden departure.

Previously the vice chancellor for external relations at the University of California, San Diego, Langley had a reputation for successfully managing large-scale capital campaigns. During the week that followed the announcement of his exit, Langley – a former journalist and writer of fiction – posted an original parable on his personal blog.

In the parable’s introduction, Langley wrote, “I now see with great clarity the utter futility of short-term approaches to building philanthropic support, of treating that challenge as if it were only about the quick and easy harvesting of low-hanging fruit and not the growing of an orchard. Yet, rather than rail,” he added, “I have written a story that I hope will help others see what life has taught me.” The parable tells the story of an academy president whose quest to improve the output of his institution’s plum orchard leads to differences of opinion between himself and his gardener.

Responding to a request for comment, Langley said that he has “a huge regard for these people who call themselves Hoyas” and wrote the parable not to “grind an axe,” but “to make the simple point that the best way to avail oneself of a steady supply of low-hanging fruit is to grow your own orchard . I wrote it for people who struggle to do things the right way.”

Langley had a history of advocating building long-term relationships with potential donors to build Georgetown’s fundraising base. In the response, Langley did not elaborate on the circumstances related to his departure.

Fellow institution The George Washington University has found itself in a similar situation, as its Vice President for Advancement Laurel Price Jones left her post in August 2009. While the school has not found a replacement for Jones, her departure has not stalled GWU’s fundraising efforts.

According to a Jan. 25 article in The Hatchet, “a university’s president, not a fundraising office’s head, usually shapes fundraising initiatives.” Several planned fundraising initiatives at GWU have continued under the direction of an interim vice president. “