Context is important. The ND endowments stands at $13B. That's a 'B'. The amount our endowment earns annually amounts to a rounding error when compared to the financial detriment of independence.
If the endowment earns only 5%, that's $650M. Foresake our identity, flexibility, status....the core of what made us who we are, for $40M or so a year? That would be pure greed. And we'd lose so much.