Earlier quoted context omitted.
Respectfully, comparing a janitor's 401k to a $27.4 billion endowment is (very) tone deaf. But yes, the tax goes against "keeping sacred systems sacred" principles and is an opinionated policy against rich entities that the current administration dislikes.
US federal government taxation policy shouldn't treat university endowments as sacred systems.
A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
521–530 of 756 posts
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#5221. Reenvisioning Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Productivity 2. Scaling the Biotechnology Revolution 3. Securing America’s Critical Minerals Supply 4. Delivering Nuclear Energy that is Faster, Safer, Cheaper 5. Accelerating Delivery of Fusion Energy 6. Transforming Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization 7. Discovering Quantum Algorithms with AI 8. Realizing Quantum Systems for Discovery 9. Recentering Microelectronics in America 10. Securing U.S. Leadership in Data Centers 11. Achieving AI-Driven Autonomous Laboratories 12. Designing Materials with Predictable Functionality 13. Enhancing Particle Accelerators for Discovery 14. Unifying Physics from Quarks to the Cosmos 15. Predicting U.S. Water for Energy 16. Scaling the Grid to Power the American Economy 17. Unleashing Subsurface Strategic Energy Assets 18. HPC Code Curation, Translation, and Development for Accelerated Scientific Discoveries 19. AI for Scientific Reasoning 20. Cybersecurity for AI-driven Science Workflows 21. Artificial Intelligence in Fluid Flow for Energy Components and Technologies
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#523Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree there are real problems in higher education. But the explanation that universities simply became bloated because student loan money was too easy is very incomplete. At universities like MIT, Stanford and others, many undergraduates do not pay anything close to sticker price. Students from lower and middle income families often receive major aid, and in some cases pay no tuition at all. Full tuition is paid mo…
Most universities subsidize their undergraduate program using graduate and professional degrees. And these degrees are often glorified immigration programs. Yes, even at elite universities.
Really I don't see many downsides unless you're leaning heavily on the idea immigration is a bad thing for America.
> And these degrees are often glorified immigration programs.
I think you'll need to support that statement with a better argument.
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking a longer time to graduate to become the “world expert” in their field is fine if grad students weren’t paid next to nothing for the 60+ hours a week that they are expected to work. As it is now it’s better to finish as quickly as possible so they can have a real life.
Isn’t this sort of how all terminal degrees work? MDs, JDs, etc are all putting the candidates through the wringer, for relatively low wages, until they’re “experienced”. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s common knowledge it’s the way things work if you want to have those magic letters of a terminal degree next to your name in your email signature. Don’t want to deal with the machinations required? Opt for the mast…
MDs and JDs are professional professional qualifications, which makes their situation a bit different from purely academic degrees. For example the ABA acts kind of like a cartel.
I don't think I disagree with you, by the way. I'm just more unhappy about it. All of these sclerotic, even corrupt, institutions acting like aging vats for talented youth, all to exclude newcomers and to maintain hierarchies...they're not ideal.
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Confederates' common folks tried to burn the USA to the ground to save their inalienable right to own slaves. Who will listen to the "perception and needs" of the racist, misogynistic common folks who want to impose their religious liberty (by banning abortion) and and elevate their financial situation (by pushing downward brown and black people)? (The GOP, that's who.) And don't you tell me it's a minority, when…
Calling out the GOP for imposing racism, sexism and ideology in a thread about US universities is certainly a choice.
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#526Academia is about to go through a generational reset. The system is broken and the market only tolerates broken systems for so long. There are a ton of great things that come out of universities but it’s also clear that a model of charging folks well into the six-figures for a useless degree that doesn’t prepare them for the workforce is dead and a reckoning is underway. Many schools will fail and shut down. Of those…
It's simple. The US used to be the most desirable place for immigrants and the US higher education system used to be the envy of the world and now for both of these it is not any more. A reset was always inevitable.
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#527Earlier quoted context omitted.
A very US-centric perspective. Whereas the folks in Europe do it in 3-4 years, come to the US and do a 2-3 year postdoc (with higher pay than a PhD student), and are ahead of their American peers. Also, depending on where you do it in Europe, the pay as a PhD student is higher. At the extreme end, I knew students getting paid $60K/year in one country, while I was getting $24K/year in the US.
With 2 years master's before for the same total?
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#528Earlier quoted context omitted.
Universities get ~40-50% of their funding from the government. Private equity doesn't quite fit.
Is that across all universities? Because I would guess that, for example, University of Illinois gets a much larger portion of its funding from government sources than University of Chicago (which would be one of those well-endowed universities which, incidentally, just cut tuition to zero for undergrads from families making less than $250K).
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
A very US-centric perspective. Whereas the folks in Europe do it in 3-4 years, come to the US and do a 2-3 year postdoc (with higher pay than a PhD student), and are ahead of their American peers. Also, depending on where you do it in Europe, the pay as a PhD student is higher. At the extreme end, I knew students getting paid $60K/year in one country, while I was getting $24K/year in the US.
With 2 years master's before for the same total?
In some countries, the PhD program is fixed at 3 years. You either graduate by then, or you're out (in reality, they give some option for you to pay to continue, but almost no one can afford it). I suspect in those places, people have done a 2 year MS.
Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
#530> "new enrollments for next year are down close to 20%." Does this mean that MIT admitted fewer people, or that there are fewer applicants? The article does not seem to say.
From what I understood they admitted fewer people. The professors are worried about not having funds so they aren't hiring as much
The head of MIT needs to be clearer about that. It may be inconceivable at his level to say that fewer people would apply.
In the US, school enrollment is declining due to declining birth rates.[1] That's hitting elementary schools now, but hasn't hit colleges yet. It will in a few years, of course.
[1] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/declining-public-school-e...