Universities vary widely and are extremely complex beasts. I can't address how NYU spends their money because I'm not familiar with their particular institutio

Universities vary widely and are extremely complex beasts. I can't address how NYU spends their money because I'm not familiar with their particular institutions, but the cost of the university is a lot more than space to teach and a body at the front of the room and students do derive some benefits from this environment. I think our system is broken in that a lot of students who don't gain much from being on a research campus are pushed to research campuses anyways. My theory is we need to separate training and education so that people who need training in fields can go to low-cost non-research involved places and learn the skills they need. Whereas people who truly need an education among some of the best researchers in the world go to the research institutions and do research along with their coursework. The latter is not necessary for a vast majority of college students and I think we need to stop pushing students into a system where degrees from research universities are valued independent of the need for that type of background.