Posted on 04/20/2020 3:17:52 PM PDT by Chickensoup
A number of elite American universities are finding themselves in hot water for their miserly behavior in response to the coronavirus. Harvard University is taking well-deserved heat for laying off its food service workers while sitting on a $40 billion endowment. Yale University, too, has been twisting in the wind; when New Haven mayor Justin Elicker asked the university to provide temporary housing to the city’s firefighters and police officers, the university initially refused. Then, after taking a public relations and social media beating, Yale relented, grudgingly agreeing to allow city officials to stay in the university’s vacant dormitory housing. That seems like the least a university with a $30 billion endowment could do....
Meanwhile, other universities are using the coronavirus crisis to enrich themselves. Howard University, which had an endowment of $688 million dollars as of June 30, was given $13 million in the recent coronavirus relief bill.
Despite this scrooge-like behavior in a time of global crisis, some are coming to the defense of universities sitting on their endowments while their communities suffer. Tyler Cowen argues in Bloomberg that Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are somehow staying “true to their missions.” Cowen continues: “Harvard, Stanford, and MIT stay true to their missions not by regularly asking whether they ought to redistribute their endowments to starving people around the world. And their food service workers are not more needy because of Covid-19…”
Enough.
If universities feel no obligation to care about the economic health of the broader community, it’s time for the broader community—and for conservatives in particular—to stop caring about the fiscal condition of the universities. College tuition has skyrocketed in recent years, immiserating massive numbers of young people with enormous student debt. Meanwhile, the universities themselves grow more and more hostile to conservatives every year.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
A number of elite American universities are finding themselves in hot water for their miserly behavior in response to the coronavirus. Harvard University is taking well-deserved heat for laying off its food service workers while sitting on a $40 billion endowment. Yale University, too, has been twisting in the wind; when New Haven mayor Justin Elicker asked the university to provide temporary housing to the city’s firefighters and police officers, the university initially refused. Then, after taking a public relations and social media beating, Yale relented, grudgingly agreeing to allow city officials to stay in the university’s vacant dormitory housing. That seems like the least a university with a $30 billion endowment could do.
If universities feel no obligation to care about the economic health of the broader community, it’s time for the broader community—and for conservatives in particular—to stop caring about the fiscal condition of the universities.
Meanwhile, other universities are using the coronavirus crisis to enrich themselves. Howard University, which had an endowment of $688 million dollars as of June 30, was given $13 million in the recent coronavirus relief bill.
Despite this scrooge-like behavior in a time of global crisis, some are coming to the defense of universities sitting on their endowments while their communities suffer. Tyler Cowen argues in Bloomberg that Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are somehow staying “true to their missions.” Cowen continues: “Harvard, Stanford, and MIT stay true to their missions not by regularly asking whether they ought to redistribute their endowments to starving people around the world. And their food service workers are not more needy because of Covid-19…”
Enough.
If universities feel no obligation to care about the economic health of the broader community, it’s time for the broader community—and for conservatives in particular—to stop caring about the fiscal condition of the universities. College tuition has skyrocketed in recent years, immiserating massive numbers of young people with enormous student debt. Meanwhile, the universities themselves grow more and more hostile to conservatives every year.
At least Force them to pay back their students and pay employees
Stop all federal subsidies and grants to colleges. If they weren’t assured of being paid back by the government, they would stop this insanity and start delivering or lose their entire student body.
This is bordering on quartering troops which would be a violation of the 3A. Don't firefighters and cops get paid? Aren't they deemed essential workers? Why is it that lazy ass government employees are treated better than normal citizens?
I believe in private property. It is the root of capitalism. Whining about university endowments is nothing more than having your handout for free money. It is just as bad as when universities have their hands out for tax dollars. The government should not be involved in education.
Yale University, too, has been twisting in the wind; when New Haven mayor Justin Elicker asked the university to provide temporary housing to the city’s firefighters and police officers, the university initially refused. Then, after taking a public relations and social media beating, Yale relented, grudgingly agreeing to allow city officials to stay in the university’s vacant dormitory housing. That seems like the least a university with a $30 billion endowment could do.
I seem to vaguely remember something in the Bill of Rigths about this. Oh yeah, the Third Amendment:
“No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”
I say that every college should be strapped with the student debt they caused and not on the parents and taxpayers of this country like the demo rats want. I am hoping that in a new awakening we are experiencing that On line college will be the wave of the future and the college campuses can be made to accommodate the homeless.
At the very least, yank their nonprofit status, make them pay full corporate taxes on investment income from their endowments.
I would not send any university with an endowment over $1 billion ANY bail out money. NONE. Fire your moronic deans, and use your endowment, you intellectually challenged morons.
These big schools give basketball scholarships to inner-city kids and then make millions off of them. The kids get a degree, but it's fake - tutors did all of the work. So the kids end up with a worthless piece of paper saying they have a B.A. in Journalism or Political Science. They should pay these kids.
Yes...what YOU said...and get rid of rich folks trading nonprofit funds to avoid taxes!
But where would parents send their little darlings to party on the taxpayers dime?
There’s nothing stopping local communities from taxing the endowments of the universities a squat in there mists like giant rich toads.
If the Ivy League universities find some sort of loophole or they sit on some special division outside the local community then put toll roads all around the university.
Tax the uber liberal universities back down to size.
Better yet, eliminate college sports.
Imagine what would happen to the cost of college if colleges and universities had to price their product according to what students could actually afford to pay out of their own pockets. The current inflated tuition costs aren’t providing a better education in any way, they’re only further enriching professors and administrators.
Harvard accepted $9 million in coronavirus aid:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3836940/posts
Harvard should be taken out and shot.
The endowments should be held as collateral on any graduates loan. If they remain un- or under employed in the area of the degree they received they get a refund from the college to pay off their loans.
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