Carnegie Mellon University's endowment investments fell by 9.5 percent from July through September amid stock market turmoil that has impacted the wealth of colleges nationwide.

President Jared Cohon said the school's endowment investments outperformed the overall market during a three-month period for investing that he described as "terrible."

Nevertheless, he told employees and students in a campus memo, "Absent an extraordinary recovery in those markets, our endowment will end the current year with a significant loss."

Withdrawals from the endowment help support the university's operating budget. He said any effect from reduced withdrawals would not be felt until next year, but he said Carnegie Mellon, like other campuses, is weighing avenues for cutting costs in anticipation of the deepening economic downturn.

Carnegie Mellon's endowment is among the region's largest, with a value of roughly $1.07 billion as of June 30. The university did not say yesterday how the investment losses since have affected the endowment's bottom line.

The region's largest endowment belongs to the University of Pittsburgh, which thus far has declined to release data on how it has fared in the market this fall other than to say losses were likely.

Pitt's most recent audit put the endowment's market value this summer at nearly $2.4 billion. Earlier this year, The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked Pitt's endowment as the 28th largest among colleges and universities nationwide, based on a survey conducted in 2007.

"We will not be releasing any updates to the endowment growth or otherwise until after the [trustees] investment committee has a chance to meet and review them," Pitt spokesman John Fedele said.

A meeting date for the committee has not been announced.

Last week, Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said the university was examining future capital plans and other spending in light of the worsening economy, but he said it was too early to say what specific projects might be affected.

Duquesne University said it, too, had taken a hit in the market, though its endowment is a fraction of Pitt's and Carnegie Mellon's, so the investment loss in dollars would likely be less.

As of Sept. 30, Duquesne's endowment value stood at $142 million, down from $166.5 million on June 30, university officials said.

The losses now being felt are in sharp contrast to heady gains in the market as recently as last year, which helped fuel a boom in building and programs on campuses around the country.

Harvard University, wealthiest among colleges and universities, saw its endowment grow by nearly 20 percent to $34.6 billion for the year ending June 30, 2007, according to the Chronicle survey. Yale University, the second largest, grew by 25 percent to $22.5 billion.

Some had even larger gains, including the University of Notre Dame, which saw its endowment grow that year by 34.7 percent to just under $6 billion, the biggest percentage gain among the top 20 endowed schools.

Data won't be available for months, but experts are predicting many schools could take a sizable hit in the coming months.

"I think everyone is feeling this in some measure," said Brian Flahaven, director of government relations for the Washington, D.C.-based Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. "There are some institutions that have had big losses and some that have had little losses."

At Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Cohon, in his memo dated Tuesday, credited the school's financial staff with avoiding more severe troubles faced by other universities around the country, including liquidity problems this fall related to frozen money market funds. He said endowment investments for the year ending this June were down by 2.8 percent, compared with an average loss of 4 percent at other schools.

"The net impact of all of the bad economic news on Carnegie Mellon, to date, is that we have avoided the worst of the short-term problems, but we have to plan for more difficult times ahead,'' he said.

"Accordingly, we are working on contingency plans that will help us to contain or reduce costs," he said. "We have not yet decided to take any major actions."

Carnegie Mellon, like Pitt and Duquesne, is in the midst of a fundraising campaign whose fortunes could be impacted by the souring economy. Though acknowledging that raising money is likely to be more difficult, Dr. Cohon said going public with the school's $1 billion campaign last month was the right thing, noting the school has already raised just over half the goal.