When Provost John Etchemendy and Stanford Management Company CEO Michael McCaffery talked with STANFORD about University finances a year ago (“Balancing Act,” November/December 2002), the outlook was bleak. It’s a bit sunnier now.

The management company announced in early October that the University’s endowment grew 8.8 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, one of the best performances in higher education. Battered by a plunging stock market, the endowment had lost money in each of the previous two years. It now stands at $8.2 billion.