Financial governance experts are urging colleges and universities to revisit long-term endowment return assumptions as planning becomes harder in a constrained environment. The analysis argues institutions often built portfolios on return and giving assumptions that fit earlier interest-rate and federal-support conditions. A commentator with endowment leadership experience at Princeton and Boston University’s Questrom says the sticking point is that questioning assumptions can force difficult conversations about spending levels and longer-term promises. Commonfund’s perspective is that the reassessment should be treated as fiduciary alignment through an investment policy statement—connecting return assumptions to spending, allocation, liquidity, and risk management. The piece also distinguishes return assumptions as planning inputs from return objectives as portfolio targets, framing the update as a governance duty to sustain mission commitments across market cycles.