Never one to shy away from criticizing his former home of four years, comedian Bill Maher ‘78 said on Friday’s episode of his talk show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” that he has never donated to Cornell, saying that the University has enough money already

Three years ago, the University forecasted a budget deficit of about $122 million, but Day Hall administrators now say they look forward to closing that gap almost completely by the end of Fiscal Year 2012 on June 30 — one year ahead of schedule.

Cornell’s endowment remained flat in the first quarter of the 2011-2012 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, despite significant declines in the stock market over the same period. At the same time, the University announced it would refinance its debt to mitigate concerns about the market’s volatility.

Cornell’s Senior Investment Officer John Regan announced his resignation earlier this month, fewer than two months after Chief Investment Officer Michael Abbott abruptly left the University for reasons that remain unclear.

The University announced Wednesday that its endowment climbed 19.3 percent in fiscal year 2011 as of April 30, its second consecutive annual gain.

Michael Abbott, Cornell’s chief investment officer, stepped down on Sunday. The reasons for his departure remain unclear.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will begin a search for a new professor in dairy cattle genetics.

H&V valiantly returns with riffs on heat, hot dogs and all other sorts of wieners.

Cornell's decision to give former CIO James Walsh a $400,000 bonus in the same fiscal year that the University's endowment fell by one-quarter was not a good sign that Day Hall is reimagining its compensation policies.

The university announced yesterday that Chief Investment Officer James Walsh will be resigning at the end of this academic year. As Cornell begins the process of selecting a new person to manage its roughly $4 billion endowment, it should aim to find a qualified candidate with a sense of pragmatic conservatism and a strong commitment to endowment transparency.

The latter part of Walsh’s tenure, which began in 2006, has been marked by turbulent times for the University’s finances. Cornell’s endowment suffered a drastic loss of about 27 percent last fiscal year. During the same time period, endowments at colleges and universities across the country decreased by 18.7 percent on average, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.