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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
UC Berkeley is getting a massive $113 million in computer printer money from the “Hewlett Foundation to create 100 endowed faculty chairs and slow the exodus of top professors to wealthy private universities.” George Leef at NRO’s phi beta cons blog cries foul:
For $113 million, a lot of non-rich students could have gotten scholarships to help defray the cost of college. Instead, UC will be able to marginally up its prestige by winning some bidding wars for big-name professors. I think it's a poor use of resources.
While I think the effect will likely be a notch above “marginal,” Leef has got a point. Especially given that high-profile faculty members do not necessarily add value to students’ education. In my own experience, the more prominent the professor, the less time invested in the classroom, in mentoring and in personally assessing student work (perhaps others could share opinions on this?). I prefer the Sidney Frank model of philanthropy: he gave $100 million of his Jagermeister fortune to Brown exclusively for financial aid to the lowest income students.
Note one sad postscript that Leef inexplicably omitted at NRO; as the LA Times story on the Hewlett gift observes:
The gift, to be paid over seven years, is designed to help compensate for cutbacks in state funding that threaten to erode the quality of the university. UC officials have assured the foundation that the gift will be a supplement to state funding, not a substitute.
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UC administrators say that maintaining the faculty's quality has been one of the biggest challenges after cutbacks in state funding since 2001.
Then click over to the National Priorities Project’s Iraq War cost counter, and watch as California's share of the figure soars up to over $57 billion.
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However, the problem with public education is that there just isn't enough money to go around. Although the idea is that tuition is cheaper because it's being subsidized by the state, the comparatively low price tag of a public education often shows, whether in the decrepitude of the building or simply the resources available. Boalt Hall, the law school at UC Berekely, recently recruited a "star" candidate to be dean: he worked at Harvard for many years, had a post in the Clinton administration, etc. etc. From all reports, he has done great things with the law school, and has the potential to do even more. He is, in fact, a large factor in my decision to attend Boalt.
Now he's leading a coalition of UC faculty members to petition the Board of Regeants to raise the tuition of UC grad schools to 43,000 -- private school levels. He says the resources just aren't there to make Boalt the school it could be, whether it's inability to hire great professors, lack of money to fund low-paying internships, whatever. He's threatening to leave if the tuition hike isn't approved, or if the Board doesn't find some other way to give him the money he needs to run the school he wants. (Link
I completely agree with you, Justin, and with George Leef that education should be cheaper, and that people with lots of money should do whatever they can to make it cheaper. I just think we need to keep in mind that any large donation like this, whether it's directed to the financial aid office or not, defrays the cost of education and does its part to keep tuition down.