The Misuses of the University • Hacker News Board

Re: The Misuses of the University

#41

Post by gowld » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:34 PM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #27

Johns Hopkins University is not a university. Many other "Universities" are not universities either. "Johns Hopkins Labs" would be a more accurate name as less than 10% of revenue is tuition related. I'm not sure why folks including professors continue to view these places as primarily about teaching students or academics. These $100-$250 million building projects are pretty inconsequential when research grants and c…

R1 Research University.

Teaching mostly by TA, not Faculty.

Not a "college".

Re: The Misuses of the University

#42

Post by vonneumannstan » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:38 PM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #27

Johns Hopkins University is not a university. Many other "Universities" are not universities either. "Johns Hopkins Labs" would be a more accurate name as less than 10% of revenue is tuition related. I'm not sure why folks including professors continue to view these places as primarily about teaching students or academics. These $100-$250 million building projects are pretty inconsequential when research grants and c…

This is probably true since at least WW2 but isn't the central idea that Professors closest to cutting edge research can do the most interesting teaching?

If you want the best teachers you can always go to Liberal Arts Colleges where this isn't really an issue.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#43

Post by wrqvrwvq » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:43 PM UTC

zer00eyz wrote: post #4

> With its 29 cantilevered roof planes and its clerestory glazed windows, it will quickly become the highlight of campus tours. Prospective students will look on with envy. Maybe it will attract more applicants. I got an ad the other day for a school (a mostly reputable one). They were talking about their award winning dining hall food... and the photos are over the top. Borrow a pile of money, to help fund a pretty…

Modern uni has a strong cruise-ship aesthetic.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#44

Post by cucumber3732842 » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #33

djoldman wrote: post #27

Johns Hopkins University is not a university. Many other "Universities" are not universities either. "Johns Hopkins Labs" would be a more accurate name as less than 10% of revenue is tuition related. I'm not sure why folks including professors continue to view these places as primarily about teaching students or academics. These $100-$250 million building projects are pretty inconsequential when research grants and c…

Johns Hopkins gets a lot of money from vested interests to push whatever suits them.

Exactly.

The author's electricity bill went up and his cat got stolen in part because his colleagues working under the university incentive systems (i.e. don't publish stuff that pisses off the interests that fund your lab) created work that legitimized those policy decisions so that those decisions could be made and the funding interests, whatever they may be, could benefit from them.

One wonders if there are similar incentives in the university ranking, administration and consulting that legitimize the university's otherwise questionable decision to engage in these seemingly irresponsible ventures.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#45

Post by warkdarrior » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:46 PM UTC

gowld wrote: post #41

djoldman wrote: post #27

Johns Hopkins University is not a university. Many other "Universities" are not universities either. "Johns Hopkins Labs" would be a more accurate name as less than 10% of revenue is tuition related. I'm not sure why folks including professors continue to view these places as primarily about teaching students or academics. These $100-$250 million building projects are pretty inconsequential when research grants and c…

R1 Research University. Teaching mostly by TA, not Faculty. Not a "college".

TAs soon to be replaced by AI.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#46

Post by tsumnia » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:50 PM UTC

awakeasleep wrote: post #5

If you’ve ever read science fiction about life in the ruins of an advanced culture, but you were irritated with how it skimmed over what the process of the fall was like— well, we sure have a wealth of those details now.

I like Discworld's take on "advanced culture" - Ankh-Morpork is simple built on top of the skeletons of the original city multiple times over.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#47

Post by georgeecollins » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:51 PM UTC

nyeah wrote: post #26

DesaiAshu wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having personally run a college P&L, this dodges the bigger sunk costs of higher education: 1. Old and expensive to maintain land 2. High cost of living for all staff (weighted heaviest towards faculty) 3. Ancillaries that are revenue negative, _very_ expensive, and inconsequential to the purpose of the education (eg. the lacrosse team and the Polo Club) It's nice to point fingers at the people who are taking very he…

How old is typical university land, compared to the average age of land in the same city?

I know you are making a joke, but for people who may not understand: The point is that well regarded Universities in the USA are generally old relative to other institutions in the USA. So Stanford has a pretty campus on land that was purchased when hardly anyone lived in Palo Alto. Now that land is absurdly valuable.

As in the article, it changes how you might use the land. A grove is a beautiful place to go and read or relax. But if you could replace that grove with a structure worth of hundreds of millions of dollars it changes things.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#48

Post by georgeecollins » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:55 PM UTC

nyeah wrote: post #31

WalterBright wrote: post #29

Johns Hopkins has a business school, the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, which was peculiarly not mentioned in the essay. You'd think their own business school would be capable of bringing fiscal sanity to the university?

Business school professors are professors. They've never run any business. They can train MBA students to get hired and promoted. They can keep their own personal money in S&P500 index funds. That's about it. (EDIT: Even if a few B-school professors have real-world business management skills, why would the university listen to them? They're just employees, and they're not nearly expensive enough to be credible.)

This is so true! At best business school professors have a side hustle consulting. And you can read in many places about the perils and questionable efficacy of consultants.

What they are-- first foremost-- is academics and fad surfers.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#49

Post by busyant » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 6:55 PM UTC

zer00eyz wrote: post #4

> With its 29 cantilevered roof planes and its clerestory glazed windows, it will quickly become the highlight of campus tours. Prospective students will look on with envy. Maybe it will attract more applicants. I got an ad the other day for a school (a mostly reputable one). They were talking about their award winning dining hall food... and the photos are over the top. Borrow a pile of money, to help fund a pretty…

my youngest son visited a handful of "fancy" schools near the end of highschool and he thought the whole process was nuts.

he said something like "seems like we're all expected to make a decision based on how nice the weather was when we visited and the architecture... and I don't care about either one."

Re: The Misuses of the University

#50

Post by CaptWillard » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:21 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #33

djoldman wrote: post #27

Johns Hopkins University is not a university. Many other "Universities" are not universities either. "Johns Hopkins Labs" would be a more accurate name as less than 10% of revenue is tuition related. I'm not sure why folks including professors continue to view these places as primarily about teaching students or academics. These $100-$250 million building projects are pretty inconsequential when research grants and c…

Johns Hopkins gets a lot of money from vested interests to push whatever suits them.

The early nod to Agora Institute mission of “building stronger global democracy” Followed by bemoaning USAID cuts makes me wonder if the author is deliberately missing one of the most glaring examples of this.