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2025 Hiring Pause

hr.cornell.edu

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Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#121

Post by retiredfinder »

acdha wrote: post #110
dingnuts wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then they need to find some cuts because Uncle Sam has a maxed out credit card and can't keep making up the difference whether he wants to or not

Uncle Sam doesn’t have a credit limit: Uncle Sam has chosen to take on debt so rich people can avoid paying taxes. If we had rich people pay at the same rates they paid a few decades ago, didn’t have caps on the maximum amount of taxable income for social security, etc. we could return to the balanced budget we had at the turn of the century before the Republicans lowered taxes for the express political goal of forci…

[flagged]

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#122

Post by dingnuts »

trescenzi wrote: post #97
testfoobar wrote: post #9

Here is a 2024 article from the Stanford Daily: https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/13/behind-stanfords-double... In 1996: 13,811 students, 1488 faculty, 5881 total staff. In 2024: 17,529 students, 2323 faculty, 16,527 total staff. In 28 years: 27% increase in students 56% increase in faculty 281% increase in total staff The ratio of staff to students is nearly 1:1 This is insane.

Universities run small cities. That staff number includes the people who mow the lawn, cook food, clean dorms, work security, maintain their networks, etc the list is massive.

it's more like a resort than a city, which is the problem.

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#123

Post by LeafItAlone »

retiredfinder wrote: post #121
acdha wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uncle Sam doesn’t have a credit limit: Uncle Sam has chosen to take on debt so rich people can avoid paying taxes. If we had rich people pay at the same rates they paid a few decades ago, didn’t have caps on the maximum amount of taxable income for social security, etc. we could return to the balanced budget we had at the turn of the century before the Republicans lowered taxes for the express political goal of forci…

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Do you honestly believe that either of those two examples are actually comparable to the USA’s credit status?

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#124

Post by acdha »

retiredfinder wrote: post #121
acdha wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uncle Sam doesn’t have a credit limit: Uncle Sam has chosen to take on debt so rich people can avoid paying taxes. If we had rich people pay at the same rates they paid a few decades ago, didn’t have caps on the maximum amount of taxable income for social security, etc. we could return to the balanced budget we had at the turn of the century before the Republicans lowered taxes for the express political goal of forci…

[flagged]

Can you really not think of any ways that our economy is different from those? For example, were either of them the largest economy in the world operating the global benchmark currency? Were their debts voluntary, incurred solely to allow the richest people to pay less in taxes?

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#125

Post by PhotonHunter »

Salgat wrote: post #37
mi_lk wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's just misinformation. > In particular, the endowment supports roughly two-thirds of the budget for undergraduate and graduate financial aid, as well as a significant portion of faculty salaries, research, and key programs like libraries and student services. from https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/02/staff-hiring

To add, money is fungible. $100 for one department just means that $100 is freed up for a different department.

Money in university budgets is most certainly not fungible. Endowments are for the most part directed for specific uses and cannot be used outside of the restrictions. Education and General (E&G, terminology varies between institutions) includes tuition (only part of the yearly budget) and cannot be used for research. Unrestricted funds are as rare as hens teeth and doubly so outside upper admin.

The “color of money” is perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of university admin but explains so much about how things operate.

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#126

Post by whoisburbansky »

jhbadger wrote: post #115
whoisburbansky wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you tack on a hospital to a university, the correct denominator to compare against is "patients served," not "students educated," at least for the portion of the headcount you're sticking in the numerator.

Hospitals attached to universities aren't in general "tacked on" but are a part of the educational environment. They exist not only to serve patients but to educate students.

No, of course, but is the primary focus of the bulk of the staff educational or patient care? Seems disingenuous to pretend it's the former just to make a point.

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#127

Post by PhotonHunter »

ein0p wrote: post #78
derbOac wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for perspective, the annual research budget of a university I looked at the numbers for recently (not Cornell, but R1) would go through that in less than two decades, even if it were completely dedicated to research and nothing else.

You're assuming they won't make any money on licensing or investments. Which they most certainly will.

Tech transfer is an important function, however, tech transfer offices outside perhaps the top 15 or 20 in the US (public and private) are not profitable in terms of dollars. AUTM (tech transfer trade group) has extensive data on the subject.

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#128

Post by acdha »

dingnuts wrote: post #122
trescenzi wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universities run small cities. That staff number includes the people who mow the lawn, cook food, clean dorms, work security, maintain their networks, etc the list is massive.

it's more like a resort than a city, which is the problem.

This seems like a low-value comment without some data. For example, can you identify the specific jobs which you consider resort-like and how much of the growth they contribute to?

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#129

Post by hooloovoo_zoo »

> The pause best positions us, due to the increased level of review, to carefully and with due restraint, advance only those positions that are determined to be essential at this time.

What twisted mind concocted this sentence?

Re: 2025 Hiring Pause

#130

Post by bfLives »

hooloovoo_zoo wrote: post #129

> The pause best positions us, due to the increased level of review, to carefully and with due restraint, advance only those positions that are determined to be essential at this time. What twisted mind concocted this sentence?

From the sound of it, a whole bunch of them.
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