….is a myth, pure and simple.
The University of Toronto, the wealthiest university in the province reported a surplus of $5.9 billion for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2018. That figure includes all of the schools assets such as land and investments but also $465 million in surplus revenue for the previous year.
Many years ago, I got my annual “grovel and plead” telephone call from my alma mater. The munchkin on the other end started whining that the uni was suffering from a multi-million dollar shortfall and I (as a an alumnus whose “wealth” was made possible by my education there–yeah, right) should feel compelled to give ’till it hurts.
I said no.
After I hung up, I searched on the Internet to see what was really going on. The reality was much different than what the university thingy tried to fob off on me.
The city was bidding to host a world’s fair and the president at the time, someone with an edifice complex owing to the number of new buildings that went up during her time in office, figured that the university needed to be spruced up for it. The amount that it would cost? Yup, it was equal to the “shortfall” that was whined about. In other words, I, an alumnus, was expected to help fund the university president’s grandiose schemes.
It’s been more than 20 years since I donated money to my alma mater. It clearly doesn’t need any more cash from me. Now, whenever I get the call (and I can tell who it is because someone asks for Dr. B A Deplorable Rupertslander–the only people who actually address me as such), I promptly hang up.
I have to wonder what planet those running these institutions are on. Governments get money from taxpayers and there’s only so much to pass out. It’s all about priorities and how well those bumming for cash handle and respect what’s given them. Maybe there should be an overhaul in salaries and perks.
So then … the University DOES have enough money to attract top talent to teach. So why don’t they?
Kenji, maybe they DO attract the top talent available today, sad as that may seem.
Maybe not. When ads for faculty positions are worded in such a way that one can figure out that “white heterosexual conservative men need not apply”, one has to wonder just what sort of people get hired.
I doubt anyone really wonders…
Because they are blowing 80+% of their budget on “diversity” “officers” and the like?
As someone recently commented elsewhere: Current day universities/colleges are hedge funds pretending to be educational institutions.
Many years ago, someone on a Usenet newsgroup I used to subscribe to described universities as being money-harvesting machines. I’m convinced that one of the characteristics for candidates for faculty positions is the ability to get someone else to fork over cash.
I applied for a number of faculty positions over the years and was turned down for all of them. I mentioned that I didn’t need a lot of funding for my research, particularly since it was largely done by computer and, since I had a bit of money of my own, I would be paying those expenses out of my own pocket. I had this seemingly warped notion that professors should be able to demonstrate initiative and resourcefulness, working with what they had. Evidently, such characteristics were considered undesirable.
The fact of the matter is that universities are institutionalized freeloaders which act as if the outside world owes them and should not only fork over money to keep them in business, it had no right to know how it was being spent.
My alma matter from which I gained a Science and Master’s degree stopped calling me long ago after I repeatedly told them to “f*ck off with your crank calls”. I also told them to stop sending me their elitist quarterly rag that was always saluting some pompous self serving ass or whatever the social justice cause du jour.
That sounds a lot like my alma mater. The alumni fishwrap for mine eventually became what you described. I now look at it on-line and the only features I’m interested in are the class notes and the death notices. (Sadly, I’m now old enough that I recognize some of the names of those who died. One of those was an undergrad classmate.)
Like you, I became rather obnoxious about being pestered for money. Since my alma mater turned me down for a faculty position a long time ago, why should I give it any of my cash? The result was that I must have been dropped from the mailing list as I haven’t heard anything from the place for years either by post or e-mail.
Here in the ‘States, we spend $US634 billion, or $11,222 per student for K-12 education, and another $559 billion for post-secondary education. To give you context, our defense budget is $598.5 billion.. Just how much is enough?
And the West has raised an ENTIRE class of kids who will be utterly dependent on goodwill handouts to keep themselves clothed and fed for most of their lives. Since most the West has disarmed the most productive sector of the population, I sincerely wish y’all the best of luck with that…
Good to hear they are loaded, this will be corrected once I sue for the lasting damages done by the “mystery meat” dinners in residence and exposure to toxic left-wing indoctrination sessions (which obviously failed in this one instance, and I see that “so what” was another survivor).
Bit of a red herring. They need to separate the liquid assets from the Real Estate.
Like most of us who are homeowners, inflation has made us ‘asset’ rich but cash poor.
The only ways you can benefit cash wise from your own home is to either sell it or take on more debt by mortgaging it.
Neither of those is particularly appealing in most cases (unless you want to cash out).