TECHNICIAN
tuesday november
26 2013
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Strategy change improves endowment Joseph Havey Deputy News Editor
The N.C. State Investment Fund experienced an 11.9 percent return on investment for the past year, which ended on June 30, and a 9.7 percent return for the past three years. During fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the investment returns were negative. Mary Peloquin-Dodd, associate vice chancellor for finance and business and University treasurer, said this performance is consistent with a lot of other large university endowments in the United States, and it’s due to a partnership with UNC Management Company and better market performance.
The N.C. State Investment Fund’s portfolio includes real estate, private equities, energy and natural resources, long-biased equity, and long-short equity. “The major change in our investment strategy over the past ten years is that we began investing with UNC Management Company, roughly three and a half years ago or four years ago,” Peloquin-Dodd said. “They had a good 10 year performance, and it’s a diversified portfolio.” Most of N.C. State’s endowment fund is scattered in different organizations across the University, Peloquin-Dodd said. Many of these organizations invest in the N.C. State Investment Fund, which is a
New admissions process reduces surplus waste Katherine Kehoe Staff Writer
Graduate admissions at N.C. State are now greener and more effective thanks to NextGen, a new, innovative system developed by N.C. State faculty to improve the admissions process. Lindsey Gentile, the director of graduate admissions, said one of NextGen’s main goals is to make the admissions process easier for departments trying to review applications. “With the old system, even though applicants were applying online, there wasn’t a good way to get those applications over to the faculty to review them,” Gentile said. According to Gentile, NextGen is a new system for reviewing applications that is safe, completely electronic and easy to navigate, unlike the past graduate admissions process. “A lot of graduate programs were having to print applications out and make files, or they were posting PDFs on websites and servers that
weren’t exactly secure, so that was an issue,” Gentile said. According to Jack Foster, the technical lead of the project and designer of the program, NextGen was necessary in order to make the admissions process as quick and sustainable as possible. “Since there was not a common process for the review of graduate applications, there was a need by the colleges to have a centralized process to avoid printing application materials and to expedite the evaluation process,” Foster said. Gentile said being able to decrease the time it takes for admissions to release their decisions was an important factor when developing NextGen. “Usually for an applicant at the graduate level who is applying to a lot of different schools, the one that offers you funding is the one you are probably going to go to first,” Gentile said. “We wanted the graduate program to be able to get those deci-
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university-controlled fund. It makes decisions about where to invest based on performance and risk. UNC Management Company, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and was established in 2003 to provide investment services to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other UNC System schools. The company also manages the UNC Investment Fund, LLC. Peloquin-Dodd said growth of the endowment comes from both gifts and investment performance. In the three years of Chancellor Randy Woodson’s tenure, the endowment has increased from less than $400 million to $764.9 million, as of June 30. “Endowment growth depends on
Mona Bazzaz Correspondent
Racial tensions during the 20th century manifested themselves in literature, attendees of Monday’s English Department Speaker Series learned on Monday. Assistant English professor, John Williamson, talked about The Real Slaves of the Twentieth Century: Richard Wright and the African American White Novel Monday evening. Students and faculty interested in learning more about post-war African
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el underlies the conventional wisdom that a top-performing endowment has to be big (over $1 billion), heavily invested in costly alternative strategies like hedge funds and private equity, and managed by a large and sophisticated staff of internal investment professionals,” The New York Times reported. Peloquin-Dodd said smaller endowments with more exposure to domestic — or U.S.-based — equities may have performed better in fiscal 2013 because more of their investments are concentrated in an asset class that had better performance for the fiscal year, i.e. domestic stocks.
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THROUGH ELIZABETH’S LENS
‘May the odds be ever in your favor’ PHOTO BY ELIZABETH DAVIS
A
rchery students draw their bows as they aim at a target with the image of a turkey, envisioning an unusual prize. The goal was to earn as many points as possible by hitting certain parts of the turkey target. The student with the most points got to take home a full-size frozen turkey for Thanksgiving.
N.C. State jazz ensemble features broad selection of swing, improv compositions Jacqueline Lee Staff Writer
Professor talks race, tension in literature
the year, although since Chancellor Woodson has come to the University, more of the growth has come from gifts to the University and its associated entities,” Peloquin-Dodd said. “I know that philanthropy is a huge part of the growth. The University is raising money from year to year. Not every year is consistent for investment performance.” Earlier this year, the National Association of College and University Business Officers unveiled its preliminary results for endowment performance for the year that ended in June. It found that smaller endowments (less than $1 billion) performed far better than their larger counterparts. “The long success of the Yale mod-
The N.C. State Jazz Ensemble II performed for the last time this semester on Monday at the Titmus Theatre. The show featured two jazz combo groups and a big band, which performed jazz standards, including improvised solos by several of the performers. Nick Sheeran, a sophomore in business management and marketing, plays lead trombone for the Jazz Ensemble II big band. The big band included saxophones, trumpets, trombones, a piano, a bass and drums. He said the ensemble, which practices twice a week with its 19 players, gives a great amount of freedom to improvise solos. Sheeran said performing requires
cooperation between both sections and individuals when working on a piece. “I like this program because I get a good experience with the freedom of self expression with jazz,” Sheeran said. “It is a good way to step out of my comfort zone as opposed to playing music of other types of ensembles.” Wes Parker has been the director of the jazz studies program, led the jazz ensembles and combos and teaching jazz history and improvisation at N.C. State since 2006. Parker said he hopes people come to future events to support jazz and the music department. The jazz ensembles have three to four performances each semester. The Jazz Ensemble is a subset of the music program at N.C. State, which recently celebrated its 90th anniversary.
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Jacob Lasky, a freshman in biomedical engineering plays trombone for the big band. He said he likes the freedom and the way jazz allows the players to be creative. A trio with piano, bass and drums called the Jazz Lab Combo opened the performance, followed by the jazz big band. The big band started off with Neal Hefti’s “Splanky” and a Count Basie song. Throughout the night, the band also performed standards by artists such as Mark Taylor, Jeff Jarvis and John Fedchock. “This performance is a great chance to experience a different form of music,” said Cory Temple, a senior in physics
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