Operating budget obviously does not all come from federal funds. Columbia is like a conglomerate, tuition, real estate, investments, etc.
But your point is well taken. Plugging the hole with endowment money is stop-gap until lawsuits hopefully restore funds. The stoppage clearly was illegal.
If the operating budget is in the billions and the funding they're losing is far less than that amount then the funding they're losing from the federal government wasn't covering their operating expenses.
Tell the government to shove its illegal dictat about your curriculum and activities and use all that money your real estate investments have earned you. Live your best life. Have no fucks to give.
You can literally help this country lurch its way towards an election by using your endowment now, then worry about getting your federal funding back when the other party is in power.
The problem here is the same as the problem of believing that a rich politician can't be bought. They are alreadu bought. Billions of dollars of real estate investments have corrupted the institutions such that they will never give up on that money for the sake of education
Why would taxpayers have to fund colleges? They make more than enough, especially when they can pay despicable Democrats like Hillary hundreds of thousands to speak for an hour.
Endowments are made up of money from donors who have directed that the corpus cannot be spent. The amounts sonates are permanently restricted; only the income produced may be used, and sometimes those funds are restricted to use in specific ways.
Securities, much in land and properties. They are long-term investments that produce interest, rent, dividends that universities must use for specific purposes determined by the donor. They mostly pay for scholarships and salaries, deferring tuition and other revenue to be used to keep lights on
So they're already used in an ongoing way, rather than just piling up funds? (Sorry if this seems obtuse, I don't know much about this and appear to have had misconceptions about it.)
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The University could probably raise the 400 million blocked by the government in a week from their alumni if they took a stand we could be proud of
Columbia grad ‘78
But your point is well taken. Plugging the hole with endowment money is stop-gap until lawsuits hopefully restore funds. The stoppage clearly was illegal.