The stock market roller coaster ride for the Kansas University Endowment Association is once again headed up.

After two years of declining values, the market rebounded enough in the fourth quarter of the 2003 fiscal year for a 0.3 percent increase in Endowment Association funds, association trustees announced at their annual meeting Friday.

Overall assets — including real estate — increased nearly 1 percent to $1.03 billion.

Frank Becker, the Endowment Association’s chairman, said he thought next year would be even better.

“The bottom should have been last year,” said Becker, who lives in Lawrence. “It’s really good news. Things are turning around.”

Endowment Association officials said another sign of a rosier outlook was the number of accounts subject to payment restrictions under the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act. Those accounts, established since 1995, have fallen below their original value. By law, those funds can pay only 30 percent to 35 percent of a normal payment from an endowment fund.

In February, the Endowment Association said 753 of its accounts were affected by the act. Now, many of those accounts have rebounded, and fewer than 400 are affected by the law.

Endowment Association officials also announced in February a change in policy that cut the amount of funding paid to KU. Instead of figuring payouts based on a fund’s average of the past three years, it will use the average of the quarterly values of the three years. The new policy also says the payout will be based on a figure no more than the average of the most recent four quarters.

A combination of the two sets of cutbacks — tossed in with the market downturn — meant the Endowment Association spent about $9.7 million less last year than it would have under normal conditions.

¢KU Endowment Association

Dale Seuferling, president of the Endowment Association, said if the economy continued to improve, officials would look at the new policies to decide if they should be permanent.

Despite the downturn in the economy, the Endowment Association announced Friday that it had set a record for contributions to KU for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The $85.1 million in private funds spent on the university was spurred by the “KU First: Invest in Excellence” campaign, a five-year drive that aims to raise $500 million by the end of 2004.

Glee Smith, left, and Bob Mueller, both of Lawrence, visit before a meeting of the Kansas University Endowment Association trustees. At their annual meeting Friday at the Dole Institute of Politics, trustees heard that the Endowment Association's assets have grown to .03 billion.

That $85.1 million was a 24 percent increase over the previous record of $68.9 million set in 2002. That money helps KU during a time of state cutbacks, Becker said.

“As the state falls behind, it leaves a void,” he said. “The Endowment has done a great job of filling that void.”

And Becker said he expected the KU First campaign to continue filling that void in the coming year. The campaign already has hit $469 million, and Forrest Hoglund, campaign chairman, has said he wanted to reach the $500 million mark by the end of the year, leaving another year to exceed the goal.

“We are really excited,” Becker said. “Most of the campaigns going on in the last two years had to adjust their goals or the time (of their campaigns). We did neither. We’ll be there. It’s refreshing.”