Stanford University Endowment Woes

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Faculty, research availabilty and funding are important components that make up a university…someone may be looking and find these factors important in their college search and selection. Also, it doesn’t specify Undergraduate College Search and Selection. Besides, this forum is used to discuss broad college topics because it is the most visible.</p>

<p>I’ll reserve judgement for why I think the other rankings are put on the graduate back burner of this website.</p>

<p>It is a very arbitray decision for no apparent reason other than to leave US News as the major ranking. Millions of students including potential undergrads around the world use the other rankings as much or more than USN according to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.</p>

<p>Anyway everyone knows you don’t need a great faculty–the smart kids just learn from each other.;-)</p>

<p>"Anyway everyone knows you don’t need a great faculty–the smart kids just learn from each other.:wink: "</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>“Anyway everyone knows you don’t need a great faculty–the smart kids just learn from each other.;-)”</p>

<p>Always one of my favorite lines here on CC when their favorite school comes up short on the PA rankings.</p>

<p>The education can’t be at any higher level than the students. Try teaching being a terrific math teacher (which the PA, on the college level, doesn’t attempt to plumb) teaching 6th grade math at a Southside Chicago school where students average a 2nd grade level. You will not be teaching 6th grade math.
I think this a public flagship vs. elite private debate. I’m a public flagship grad happy to send my next generation to elite privates. I know them both very well.</p>

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<p>Of course not … because that would be redundant.</p>

<p>“The education can’t be at any higher level than the students. Try teaching being a terrific math teacher (which the PA, on the college level, doesn’t attempt to plumb) teaching 6th grade math at a Southside Chicago school where students average a 2nd grade level. You will not be teaching 6th grade math.
I think this a public flagship vs. elite private debate. I’m a public flagship grad happy to send my next generation to elite privates. I know them both very well.”</p>

<p>The difference is that the better large public will have a math section for the Comm Arts or Elem Ed person just trying to get past the math requirement and very advanced math classes for those majoring in the engineering, sciences, and math areas. It is NOT one class fits all education. Just like any good public HS, the smarter kdis are tracked into more advanced and competitive classes. There are about as many or often more very smart kids at one of the better publics as there are at most privates.</p>

<p>My advice would be:</p>

<p>Don’t make assessments of a college’s post-crash fiscal position based on one news article that may or may not be accurate. Be especially wary of articles, such as the cursory Stanford article this week that get echo’d and distored in repetiion by other outlets in a grotesque version of jounalistist telephone.</p>

<p>I have not done the research required to even hazard a guess how Stanford has faired relative to its peers, but I know enough to know that this news article doesn’t come close to a full picture. For example, no serious comprehensive artcle would omit basic facts like the size of the outstanding private equity cash call commitments and the taxable-bond borrowing (if any) to cover operating costs this year due to a liquidity squeeze.</p>

<p>Most of the reporters writng these articles don’t even know enough to ask the basic questions, let alone make informed judgements.</p>

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<p>Well, I am sure that there are two or three of those 6th graders who can do 10th grade math. That should be enough for Stanford to pick. I am not worried about the rest.</p>

<p>Stanford University in California has laid off 412 employees over the past eight months and plans an additional 60 layoffs this year to offset a steep drop in the value of its endowment. University officials said Tuesday that the layoffs had been spread throughout its graduate schools, academic departments and administrative units. The university said it also laid off 72 employees whose positions were financed by sponsored research that recently ended. Officials say Stanford’s endowment, which finances a big portion of its budget, is expected to decline 30 percent, to $12 billion, this year. In addition to layoffs, the university is cutting costs by freezing salaries and faculty hiring, eliminating unfilled positions and suspending campus construction projects. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/education/03brfs-STANFORDPLAN_BRF.html?ref=education[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/education/03brfs-STANFORDPLAN_BRF.html?ref=education&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So did Harvard and Yale. It must be the economy.</p>