As Brown University’s multibillion-dollar endowment started to lose value last year, the university had to make some tough choices about its capital projects. The school, in the middle of a 10-year master-planning project that included new laboratories, walkways and infrastructure, had planned to grow through alumni giving and structuring its debt based on the size of its endowment.

Not only did the endowment take a hit of almost 30 percent – it has dropped from $2.78 billion to about $2 billion – but alumni donors have reduced their spending since the recession started, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Huidekoper said in a recent interview. The way the university funds its projects is not expected to change, “therefore, our ability to carry the cost of incremental debt is not what it was,” she said.

That spelled trouble for the Mind Brain Behavior Building, a planned project now on hold. “At this point, we’re saying we can’t anticipate doing any debt funding,” Huidekoper said. “We should not plan on debt funding and we’ll have to gift-fund. But … the ability to fundraise hasn’t been increased in this [downturn].”

“We have to prioritize,” Huidekoper said.

Prioritizing of projects based only on need – not based on a school’s “wish list” – is happening at colleges throughout New England, said Mark J. Zarrillo, a principal and architect with Symmes, Maini & McKee Associates. Zarrillo has for years specialized in campus redesigns and new higher education buildings.

SMMA, which opened a Providence office last summer, has five higher education projects under way – including a renovation of Providence College’s Slavin Center and a few renovations at Suffolk University in Boston. All of the current construction projects were started before the economy soured.

“They aren’t big projects, but they are projects that are continuing because the schools have decided they need to supply these student services,” Zarrillo said, adding that there’s been a jump in building redesigns to replace stalled new construction.

Zarrillo added that the staffs for university capital projects can now pursue those smaller projects more easily, because of dropping construction costs. “So for that reason, there is no lack of RFPs out there for us to respond to,” Zarrillo said. “The problem is that when we respond, there are 30 other firms” to compete with.