From: lee@ace.npac.syr.edu (Lee C. Brink)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,soc.college,alt.politics.correct
Subject: Re: the MIT anti-trust case
Date: 30 Sep 92 13:15:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: ace.LEE.92Sep30090630
	<1992Sep30.023619.9718@panix.com>
Organization: Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse, NY
In-reply-to: lkk@panix.com's message of Wed, 30 Sep 1992 02:36:19 GMT


In <07cM02bT243G01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll) writes:

Under what criteria do you distinguish a university from a charity,
such as the Red Cross?


    The Red Cross will do its work on donations only.  You don't get a 
    bill when you get blood from the Red Cross.


Universities are non-profit institutions (like the Red Cross).


    Universities are considered non-profit for tax purposes.  If a university
    doesn't make a profit, pray tell how can it afford new equipment, 
    renovations, new buildings, etc.?  Donations?  Not in that volume.  We
    won't even talk about the bureaucratic waste that goes on in a
    university.


They sell their "product" at or below cost (like the Red Cross sells
blood),


    At or below cost?  That's a good one.  Try "They'll sell their services
    for what they can get."  That would explain the 47%+ increas in tuition 
    alone over the past 6 years here at Syracuse University.  If they can
    sell the same service at a higher price, why not jack it up?


and subsidize their product for less fortunate customers as a
matter of policy (like the Red Cross).  


    Note:  universities do NOT have to give you financial aid.  In fact,
    when the belt tightens, that is one of the first places to get whacked.
    It happened here at Syracuse University.  The budget shrank, and
    financial aid lost a tidy sum.


Both finance their activities partly out of donations, 


    Donations are for specific causes: New wings, specific pieces of
    equipment, and the like.  Unsolicited donations are rarely
    generic.  Solicited donations are general donations, but at least
    here at SU, the amount has dropped drastically.


partly out of government funds,
    

    Gov't funds are contract specific.  Rarely does the gov't give a
    "no strings attached" grant.  Gov't grants are specific as to where
    the money can be spent, and the paper work involved to prove that
    you're using the money only as intended is astronomical.


and partly out of user fees.


    User fees?  Is that your tuition?  You should someday take a look at
    your tuition/fee bill to the university.  Tuition is one, computer
    account is another, food is yet another, etc.  Nothing is free, and
    as students are the main source of income for a university, they will
    pay the lion's share.


Most importantly, both exist not because there is a natural market for
their services, but because society at large nutures and protects the
institution because of the vital NON-MARKET role that it plays.


    No argument there.  But keep in mind that universities are not the
    rosy world you paint them to be. 


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Newsgroups: misc.legal,alt.politics.correct,soc.college,sci.econ