One of my favorite analysts of universities is Christopher Newfield. He's quoted in this LA Times article on the MLA conference on the topic of "bootleg universities." Here's the text of his MLA presentation on the past and future of US public universities (sans slides, unfortunately). Excerpts:
A larger number of independent analysts began to do the math on sponsored research projects. They found that this research produced large gross income and, at the same time, net losses, once overall expenses were calculated....
The US had had an educational advantage over every other country in the world from about 1840 on – first in high school graduation rates, then in college graduation. This was an edge in the attainment of the whole population, not just for the top 1% that went to Ivy League Plus. Between 1980 and 2010, the US completely squandered this historic advantage. It fell behind many high-income countries, and behind some medium-income countries as well....
After a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, a major state university system revealed that savings of about a million dollars from closing humanities departments overshadowed by losses of nearly $50,000,000 annually in its sponsored research programs...
Note: he's talking about SUNY in that last graf.
UPDATE: Harold notes below in comments the analogy between sponsored research and football as net losses. I complete agree, and thought I would call readers' attention to the Knight Commission report on US college athletics. Here's a key graf from that report:
With few exceptions, however, reported operating surpluses from the two marquee sports were not enough to cover the costs of an athletic department’s other sports offerings, whether it be 14 or 24 squads. The myth of the business model – that football and men’s basketball cover their own expenses and fully support non-revenue sports – is put to rest by an NCAA study finding that 93 institutions ran a deficit for the 2007-08 school year, averaging losses of $9.9 million. That was more than twice as large as the average net revenue ($3.9 million) for the 25 programs that reported an operating surplus in 2008.
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