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Comment by tdeck

2 days ago

> So if a university has money, learning there should be free?

Not an unreasonable proposition. The purpose of the university is ostensibly to provide an education, not to continue hoarding more and more money.

17 comments

tdeck

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JumpCrisscross  2 days ago

> purpose of the university is ostensibly to provide an education

One of the purposes. They’re also centres for learning and research and repositories of knowledge.

  • bigstrat2003  2 days ago

    I disagree. I think teaching is the sole purpose of a university. Research is ancillary to that, and if an organization only did research but didn't teach I would not say they get to call themselves a university any more.

    • AwGeezeRick  2 days ago

      You can disagree but that doesn't change anything. Most major universities are research institutions that also teach people, and hopefully bring up some through the ranks to further research/academia/human knowledge.

      Without research there would be nothing new to teach, Without research diseases wouldn't be cured. A lot of amazing things we have came from universities.

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    • JumpCrisscross  2 days ago

      > I think teaching is the sole purpose of a university

      Cool. This isn't how the word works in practice. More importantly, it isn't how the trustees of the people who gave those universities the money asked for it to be used. (Nor the government or the granting agencies.)

      > if an organization only did research but didn't teach I would not say they get to call themselves a university any more

      Again, cool. This isn't true in reality. Research universities famously put research first, which is why they can attract top faculty.

  • tdeck  2 days ago

    If they were spending the money on those things, this might be an argument. But they're not spending it; they're hoarding it.

    • tzs  2 days ago

      They are spending it. On average they spend about 5% of it per year. In 2023 that was $975 million. It goes 53% to instruction, 22% to health care, 15% to student aid, and 10% to research, academic support, and other services.

      The point of an endowment is to provide long term support for whatever the purpose is of that endowment. That is done by investing it and using the investment earnings for that purpose.

    • JumpCrisscross  2 days ago

      > If they were spending the money on those things, this might be an argument. But they're not spending it; they're hoarding it

      There is something ironic about people who work in start-ups arguing for endowments to be spent down. Who do you think gives money to the VC funds?

    • jjk166  2 days ago

      I don't think you understand how endowments work.

      It's not a pile of gold sitting in a vault on campus. It's an account which is productively invested and generating returns which are what's actually used for funding operations. A $20 billion endowment would be expected to produce about $1 billion per year, or around 20% of the annual operating budget. They need to bring in about $4 Billion more dollars per year to keep the lights on.

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