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>> the money would at least likely go back into academia so I am not a visceral no. I'm not sure how involved/aware of US universities you've been in the past

by skeeter2020 5y ago

>> the money would at least likely go back into academia so I am not a visceral no. I'm not sure how involved/aware of US universities you've been in the past 20+ years but this just isn't true. Tuition costs have skyrocketed because when you can't ever get away from student debts it turns out there's lots of people willing to lend you unlimited funds. Endowments at the majority of the universities listed here have grown enormously in the past several decades, and have unicorn returns in the past few years. And yet the amount of money going into research and pedagody hasn't really grown at all. Why? it's all going to adminstrative overhead. Just like the article states here, most schools can't even cover the cost of their technology transfer and licensing overhead (more administration) so they're going to squeeze those who can't lawyer up vs. actually provide valuable IP. These are not charities regardless of their taxable status. The pay of top administrators at Harvard is actually determined by the Harvard Corporation, and in addition to incredible benefits and sweet lifetime deals they're all making well over $500K a year in salary. HMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard is even more ridiculous, with the top 5 bureaucrats all earning between 4.5 and 6 MILLION dollars a year in salary. This has nothing to do with research and teaching.

deleted 5y ago
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MattGaiser 5y ago
This comment is why I mentioned the part about charities, where we expect people who are on a mission to do it for peanuts and a shoestring budget or else they are not virtuous. >I'm not sure how involved/aware of US universities you've been in the past 20+ years but this just isn't true. Tuition costs have skyrocketed because when you can't ever get away from student debts it turns out there's lots of people willing to lend you unlimited funds. I didn't say it was going to tuition, just academia. Academia is a lot more than flocks of students in a lecture hall. > And yet the amount of money going into research and pedagody hasn't really grown at all. It has at Harvard. Would surprise me if it hasn't at the other listed schools as well. https://www.statista.com/statistics/697606/rnd-expenditure-harvard-university/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/697606/rnd-expenditure-h... > The pay of top administrators at Harvard is actually determined by the Harvard Corporation, and in addition to incredible benefits and sweet lifetime deals they're all making well over $500K a year in salary. So the leaders of one of the most important academic institutions in the world make the same as a middle career software engineer at a FAANG? If anything, they seem underpaid. > HMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard is even more ridiculous, with the top 5 bureaucrats all earning between 4.5 and 6 MILLION dollars a year in salary. Because that is what people who manage 40 billion dollars earn. We go back to expecting charity people to earn fractions of their market rate.
benrbray 5y ago
> And yet the amount of money going into research and pedagody hasn't really grown at all Indeed. At the big research universities that many people aspire to attend, students are paying tens of thousands of dollars for the part-time attention of professors who are not paid full-time (or even half time, or anything close to it) to teach and develop educational materials. In my experience as a undergrad/grad student and TA, many view teaching as an unfortunate requirement of the job, or if you're lucky, a fun hobby may or may not have time for that week. When a professor gets busy with other things, teaching the first sacrifice. Normally they don't hire nearly enough TAs to pick up the slack. It's absolutely crazy. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I paid for those four years, when most of my learning came from YouTube lectures and pirated textbook PDFs.
closeparen 5y ago
If I fly 747s full of sick orphans from Africa to western hospitals, will you point to the size of my jet fuel and aircraft maintenance bills to claim I'm not really a charity?

deleted 5y ago

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MattGaiser 5y ago

This comment is why I mentioned the part about charities, where we expect people who are on a mission to do it for peanuts and a shoestring budget or else they are not virtuous. >I'm not sure how involved/aware of US universities you've been in the past 20+ years but this just isn't true. Tuition costs have skyrocketed because when you can't ever get away from student debts it turns out there's lots of people willing to lend you unlimited funds. I didn't say it was going to tuition, just academia. Academia is a lot more than flocks of students in a lecture hall. > And yet the amount of money going into research and pedagody hasn't really grown at all. It has at Harvard. Would surprise me if it hasn't at the other listed schools as well. https://www.statista.com/statistics/697606/rnd-expenditure-harvard-university/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/697606/rnd-expenditure-h... > The pay of top administrators at Harvard is actually determined by the Harvard Corporation, and in addition to incredible benefits and sweet lifetime deals they're all making well over $500K a year in salary. So the leaders of one of the most important academic institutions in the world make the same as a middle career software engineer at a FAANG? If anything, they seem underpaid. > HMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard is even more ridiculous, with the top 5 bureaucrats all earning between 4.5 and 6 MILLION dollars a year in salary. Because that is what people who manage 40 billion dollars earn. We go back to expecting charity people to earn fractions of their market rate.

benrbray 5y ago

> And yet the amount of money going into research and pedagody hasn't really grown at all Indeed. At the big research universities that many people aspire to attend, students are paying tens of thousands of dollars for the part-time attention of professors who are not paid full-time (or even half time, or anything close to it) to teach and develop educational materials. In my experience as a undergrad/grad student and TA, many view teaching as an unfortunate requirement of the job, or if you're lucky, a fun hobby may or may not have time for that week. When a professor gets busy with other things, teaching the first sacrifice. Normally they don't hire nearly enough TAs to pick up the slack. It's absolutely crazy. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I paid for those four years, when most of my learning came from YouTube lectures and pirated textbook PDFs.

closeparen 5y ago

If I fly 747s full of sick orphans from Africa to western hospitals, will you point to the size of my jet fuel and aircraft maintenance bills to claim I'm not really a charity?