According to the survey, conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the size of UNC's endowment went from about $1.1 billion to about $1.05 billion -- about a 5.4 percent decrease.
UNC ranks 39th out of 610 schools surveyed in the amount of its total endowment, and it is one of 41 schools that dealt with more than $1 billion dollars in the 2000-01 fiscal year.
An endowment fund is money that a nonprofit organization, like a university, invests. Usually the interest is used to fund improvements and other projects.
The 3.6 percent average decrease in endowments could indicate that college investment funds are vulnerable to the effects of a slumping economy.
But Damon Manetta, the association's assistant manager for public relations, said higher-education investors tend to be more conservative when investing and therefore losses often are not devastating.
He said the impact on some schools would not be large. "UNC-Chapel Hill, at this point in time, is not going to register that much of an impact," he said. "If you take a 30-year snapshot, the return investment in stocks is very high."
But some schools' endowments grew despite the faltering economy.
Yale University, which is ranked second behind Harvard University in total amount of endowment funds, is the highest-ranked school to post a gain, according to the survey.
Yale's investment office reported that the university's endowment totaled about $10.7 billion on June 30, 2001, an increase from the previous fiscal year-end total of about $10.1 billion.
