4 ms·

>"This decision is intended to benefit Temple the business, not the Temple the university." More and more it seems like academics are just a front for running

>"This decision is intended to benefit Temple the business, not the Temple the university." More and more it seems like academics are just a front for running a hedge fund - one that gets very favorite tax treatment. Growing the endowment is the most important thing in the minds of the leadership.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
Any activity that gets preferential tax treatment is going to be used as a pretext for otherwise low margin business activity because if you can run the pretext part at a break-even you can do the other activity and have an edge over everyone else. Follow the incentives...
charlieflowers 4y ago
Yep. After all, where on Earth does all the tuition money actually go? The buildings are nice and there are way too many overpaid administrators, but even still that can't possibly account for all the $$$ flowing in.
- klyrs 4y ago
  The whole idea behind endowments used to be that they could maintain the institution through tough times. But nowadays, there's an expectation that endowments should continue to grow during a recession, even if that means cutting the institution to the bone. And administration hierarchies keep getting deeper; they're never on the chopping block.
  - grubbs 4y ago
    Working at a pretty famous institution with a 6+ billion endowment...in June 2020 the president basically said "we're performing layoffs, stopping all retirement contributions, hiring freeze, and no raises for anyone." Then gave some additional reasons as to why they couldn't dip into the endowment to save jobs/help those laid off. So I guess it wasn't for tough times after all?
epgui 4y ago
Lol those aren’t academics, they’re administrators. It’s a pretty simple difference.
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  Academia is pretty ruthless these days too -- publish or perish.
  - epgui 4y ago
    Totally, but these issues are also completely different.
eli_gottlieb 4y ago
I agree with the argument that this is being done by administrators, not academics, but there's a simple solution: tax endowments of private universities and use the money for state schools, trade schools, and community colleges.
- tedunangst 4y ago
  Temple is a state school. (Okay, I think I should clarify it's kinda complicated, it's not technically a state college, but it's a peer of penn state in the weird PA hybrid scheme. So if you thought Penn state was public, Temple is equivalently so.)
  - eli_gottlieb 4y ago
    Well shit, and the state doesn't actually own the endowment? That's ridiculous. Take those assets into state ownership.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

Any activity that gets preferential tax treatment is going to be used as a pretext for otherwise low margin business activity because if you can run the pretext part at a break-even you can do the other activity and have an edge over everyone else. Follow the incentives...

charlieflowers 4y ago

Yep. After all, where on Earth does all the tuition money actually go? The buildings are nice and there are way too many overpaid administrators, but even still that can't possibly account for all the $$$ flowing in.

klyrs 4y ago
The whole idea behind endowments used to be that they could maintain the institution through tough times. But nowadays, there's an expectation that endowments should continue to grow during a recession, even if that means cutting the institution to the bone. And administration hierarchies keep getting deeper; they're never on the chopping block.
- grubbs 4y ago
  Working at a pretty famous institution with a 6+ billion endowment...in June 2020 the president basically said "we're performing layoffs, stopping all retirement contributions, hiring freeze, and no raises for anyone." Then gave some additional reasons as to why they couldn't dip into the endowment to save jobs/help those laid off. So I guess it wasn't for tough times after all?

epgui 4y ago

Lol those aren’t academics, they’re administrators. It’s a pretty simple difference.

red-iron-pine 4y ago
Academia is pretty ruthless these days too -- publish or perish.
- epgui 4y ago
  Totally, but these issues are also completely different.

eli_gottlieb 4y ago

I agree with the argument that this is being done by administrators, not academics, but there's a simple solution: tax endowments of private universities and use the money for state schools, trade schools, and community colleges.

tedunangst 4y ago
Temple is a state school. (Okay, I think I should clarify it's kinda complicated, it's not technically a state college, but it's a peer of penn state in the weird PA hybrid scheme. So if you thought Penn state was public, Temple is equivalently so.)
- eli_gottlieb 4y ago
  Well shit, and the state doesn't actually own the endowment? That's ridiculous. Take those assets into state ownership.