In light of the odd downmod, allow me briefly to elaborate. Universities have very long investment time horizons. This means that their endowments have plenty of time to recover from losses. The same goes for a 30-year-old investor: if you plan to retire at, say, 65, having your 401(k) tank is bad but not a disaster, since you have 35 years to recover. Conversely, when faced with steep losses, institutions less stable than universities (such as most corporations) and older investors (such as those nearing retirement) have much more cause for concern.