A group of Harvard alumni is demanding the return to the university of $21-million in bonuses paid to managers of its endowment, which is projected to lose 30 percent of its value this fiscal year, The Boston Globe reported today.

The protest — lodged by a group of 10 alumni in the Class of 1969 — follows past outcry over the compensation of Harvard’s money managers but comes at a time when Harvard has been forced to freeze salaries and suspend faculty searches in response to the plunging value of its endowment.

“We suggest that Harvard use the economic catastrophe that has now befallen the nation, and Harvard itself, to establish new policies to get the university back on a sounder and more equitable financial track,” the alumni wrote in a letter sent to Drew G. Faust, Harvard’s president, on January 12.

Harvard’s five highest-paid money managers earned $3.9-million to $6.4-million each for their performance during the last fiscal year, the Globe reported. That figure is down significantly from 2003, when Harvard’s highest-paid money manager earned $35.1-million, prompting an alumni outcry that led Harvard to cap compensation for endowment managers. —David Shieh