No. You misunderstand endowments.
Their principal is not intended to be spent, ever. The point of an endowment is not to "provide stability during trying times".
The point is to spend the interest that it generates, in normal times, in perpetuity. Which Harvard already does and has always done. Interest from their endowment is already a large part of their revenue. That's what the endowment is for.
How much is the principle? Because I bet you $3.50 it’s multiple billion less than the current balance.
Returns fluctuate wildly, while expenses are roughly constant. So obviously expenses are drawn conservatively. And if investment works well, you can grow the endowment too. Obviously it is up to the university to strike the right balance.
The more it grows, the less risk there is in the future. But if you start spending it more than the levels of its average returns, that's high risk. And the point is it's supposed to last forever.
You also need to grow it simply to account for inflation and other rising costs.
Sounds like they have significant buffer to scratch the surface of their dragon hoard for one, perhaps even two, years.
They’d probably want to reduce spending and hit up donors if they felt they need to power through a four year stretch.
> The point is to spend the interest that it generates, in normal times, in perpetuity.
Yes, but these are not normal times.