I work for a research institution not as big as Stanford, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done to provide education, from the office staff needed to

I work for a research institution not as big as Stanford, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done to provide education, from the office staff needed to generate reports for regulators and accrediting bodies, to the marketing staff, to IT staff, to financial aid admissions and other officers, to security, to the janitors .... People don't realize how much work and man power it takes to put one professor in the classroom, or to keep the hospital open that is tied to the institution. Also, many institutions have a vast portfolio of real estate. This takes more man power to manage that a similarly valued portfolio of financial instruments traded on wall street.