Comment by alwillis
9 days ago
It means instead of accepting Columbia’s word they’ll comply, they want Columbia to enter into a legal agreement, bypassing possibly years of litigation if Columbia changes their minds without such an agreement.
It would give the Trump administration an unprecedented amount of control of a private university.
Only if they want to continue being funded to the same extent. Columbia receives more funding (% of budget and gross) than many public universities.
An alternative for Columbia is to just reject federal funding and look to its endowment and forprofit services
Columbia's endowment is ~$20 billion. A sustainable spending level would be 3-4% of that, assuming no further donations, or 4-5%, if donations continue as usual. In any case, it would be at most $1 billion/year, and that money is already spent on current activities.
Last year, Columbia received over $1.3 billion as government grants and contracts. Even if they stopped everything that currently depends on the endowment and redirected the money to replace federal funding, it would not be enough.
Why not spend the money? That is a 20 year runway.
It isn't a law of nature that the endowment must always grow. It serves the institution, not the other way around. What is the point if not to spend it when it matters?
6 replies →
Sounds like they need to play along with the rules, then.
4 replies →