Despite a summer of stock market extremes, the university boasts numbers of a healthy endowment.

ACU’s endowment is currently valued at $290 million-$295 million, placing the university among the top 250 in the country, said Jack Rich, chief investment officer.

“It’s always hard to know day to day how our investments are doing,” Rich said. “But we are pleased that we have done relatively well for these last couple months.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which represents 30 industrial stocks, lost more than 15 percent during late July and early August and have shown increased volatility since — up three percent one day and down three percent the next.

Rich said the volatility of the stock market has had a major effect on how the university invests its funds accumulated through the endowment.

“We try to protect ourselves when the market goes down,” Rich said. “We’ll invest in a very broad range of assets and rely on those that don’t change very much.”

The money gifted toward the school contributes to the university’s diverse investment portfolio of oil and gas stocks, private equity and hedge funds, Rich said.

The endowment started to build 60 years ago, when the university received early gifts of property. Over the years, various donors have given anywhere from a few dollars to a few million dollars, Rich said.

“We have been very fortunate because the endowment level has always been able to comfortably support the university,” Rich said.

In the past, the endowment has peaked at $300 million but fell to $260 million during the bear market crisis of 2008.

Kelly Young, chief financial officer, works closely with the president and senior leadership teams to make sure funds are reserved to support university priorities, such as academics and student life.

“What students need to understand is that the endowment is like a savings account,” Young said. “You can’t spend it all away; you have to be very careful.”

The endowment provides 10 to 12 percent of the revenue that ACU operates on, Young said.

“Depending on how the endowment goes up or down, we’ll know how much we’ll be able to spend in areas such as academic department operations and scholarship funding,” Young said.

Young said students should be aware of the endowment’s affect on the increase of tuition.

“Tuition only pays 55 percent of university operations,” Young said. “So the more we receive in gifts, the more of a balance students will see in tuition.”

For the next couple of months, the financial office will evaluate the affordability of the university in relation to student priorities, Young said.

“The key is maintaining the academic quality of the university,” Young said. “We want what’s best for students and like to hear what they have to say.”