I thought this was an interesting article about the current state of our education system.
Berea College is certainly not a household name like Harvard or Yale, but its emphasis on "contributing to the public good" seems, to me, to be an admirable (although some might say idealistic) goal. Finally, a university that seeks to live out its own mission statement!
Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that universities are becoming too much like corporations. Certainly there are similarities between the institutional structures of universities and corporations (i.e. budgets, sustainability, hierarchies of power, etc.), but businesses have stock-holders and a bottom line to worry about while universities ought to at least be primarily concerned with education. There's really something refreshing about seeing a college putting their students to work (especially on projects of local sustainability like farming) while putting extravagance aside--these are really lessons that students can use. Of course, I'm not advocating that all schools abolish their athletic programs and the like, but Berea College's committment to students could be a lesson in restaint and moderation (or balance) for other schools.
Does a school really have to have a $35 billion endowment even if they do make groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs? I really doubt that a substantial amount of that money actually goes to the faculty (and graduate students) who are doing that research. In fact, if it were there might even be more breakthroughs. At best, this is being over-cautious; at worst, it's simply a way to use wealth to claim superiority.
I'm certainly missing a lot I'm sure. Thoughts?
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4 comments:
Great Post Paddy.
I read this too. I think you are dead on - especially when it comes to their commitment to students. It sounds like it would be a great place to go to school despite the lack of "frills." I wonder if they brew their on beer too?
Just one thing to consider about the endowments at Harvard, Yale, etc. Those endowment funds have grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years through expert money management. At a time when the market is losing money, those endowments have been adding 20% or better each year. Obviously, when you're dealing with billions of dollars the money piles up very quickly. Hopefully (and this may be a long shot) they just haven't figured out what to do with the money yet. No educational institution has ever massed that amount of wealth. Thus, there is no model for what to do with it.
Ignoring what Berea is doing (which is great by the way), what do you do with $35 billion?
I would think paying tuition in full for low income families would be one way to spend it. That, of course, could lower the incoming class "statistics" and certainly the school's status. It just seems to me that it's not necessarily about how to spend it, but rather what those expenditures could "say" about your university.
I think most of those universities already pay the tuition for low-income students. Harvard recently raised the level at which they consider somebody to be "needs based" for institutional financial aid (ie--more middle income kids are qualifying for financial aid based on their income level not merit). Essentially, though, these universities could eliminate tuition...at least for undergrads.
I think they should use it to grow their universities. (Eat it, Pat.) I think they should start to build more campuses, expand the university so they can accept more students. If their education is so great, why not allow more students to enjoy in it?
Also, I think privately financing research is an important use of the money. Right now, researchers at Harvard are doing cutting edge stem cell research because they have been able to privately finance it. Other researchers can't conduct such research because of the political stranglehold on research money.
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