<p>What socialist BS the original article is...why shouldn't they acquire money that they have earned? And SPEND it! The parents pay high tuitions, give them something in return. Ultimately, students know from day one they can get into a college with a high endowment.</p>
<p>Being tax exempt saves the billions. In return for that the organization is supposed to exist for a public purpose. Providing luxury accomodations superior to that of most taxpayers is stretching that exemption.</p>
<p>Thought you might want to see the official Big Ten response to the BW article
Educational</a> Excellence, Without Ivy
Hey, don't blame Harvard for spending the money they have. Yes, privates spending big bucks may increase competition for top research professors. The rich get richer...who said life was fair? The competitive landscape is always changing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
President Faust suggests that lesser-endowed universities should back off from "ambitious" scientific research and focus instead on social science and the humanities.
[/quote]
Faust is the new Harvard pres. </p>
<p>Personally, I am shocked that a higher ed leader would have the audacity to make such a statement, particularly when most of their scientific research, including the "ambitious" part, is paid for by the feds. (Harvard Medical School gets over 80% of its research $ from NIH if I recall correctly). Worse, it is these federal $ that pay for the facilities, through indirect cost recovery (overhead). To top it off, this comes from an institution whose track record for winning the top science prize, the Nobel, is not noble at all.</p>
<p>Unofficial Big 10 response--Big deal.</p>
<p>Hmmm...I wonder what Faust thinks about the $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute being funded by BP, and run by the lesser-endowed universities of Berkeley and UIUC? Surely she must think Harvard or other better-endowed privates would be more capable of conducting such "ambitious scientific research". </p>
<p>Fortunately, clearer thinking has prevailed.</p>
<p>Faust is a "she." It was national news that Harvard chose a woman as the new president of Harvard University.</p>
<p>UBCEG, Faust's frustration is exactly things like you mentioned. How could H have lost such a prize? And a guy named Atala left Harvard Med/Children's to go to Wake Forest because they put up $100 million for a new institute headed by this guy? If only these public schools would stop competing, then H could spend more of its money on the faculty club, nicer student residences....:)</p>
<p>My mistake, I corrected my post. In the posted article, it said "Drew Gilpin Faust"... Drew is not normally a female name.</p>
<p>Ms Barrymore might disagree and thanks to her appearance on Letterman we are pretty sure she is a she. ;-)</p>
<p>Terry Devitt taking it to Harvard. You go Terry!</p>
<p>"Terry Devitt, a spokesman for the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s research programs, said he saw no evidence that his school could not compete with the Ivies, citing the university’s top-10 ranking as a recipient of federal funds for scientific research. </p>
<p>“Take a look at the numbers,” Devitt said. “This is a first-class institution and is the equal or superior of Harvard in many areas.” </p>
<p>University of Wisconsin at Madison ranked second in total research and development expenditures in 2006, while Harvard did not break the top 25, according to the National Science Foundation. Only four of the top 10 institutions listed were private."</p>
<p>The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Harvard Disputes Faust Quotations in BusinessWeek Article</p>
<p>Taking on Harvard? Read what Harvard's spokesperson, not a journalist, had to say (from the same Crimson article:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Associate Provost for Science Kathleen M. Buckley disputed Bianco’s assertion that elite, private schools put their public counterparts at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>“Many of the top public universities are very serious competitors in the sciences,” Buckley said. “I know a lot of scientists educated in the public school system in the West, and they’re some of the top scientists in the world.”
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is a case of fabricating false conflict between private and public institutions.</p>
<p>Classic backtracking. She slipped an insult and now they are trying to paper it over.</p>
<p>Are you so certain that Faust was quoted accurately? Do you know her or the journalist personally?</p>
<p>Having been interviewed by journalists more than once, and having been a cub reporter myself years ago, I know that most journalistic quotations printed in quotation marks in newspapers and magazines are not necessarily verbatim, or accurately representative of the context of a response. Maybe Harvard and Wisconsin can patch up their differences by tailgating together before a friendly out-of-conference football game.</p>
<p>I wonder if Faust made a rookie mistake. I still haven't seen an accurate quote of exactly what she said. Shirley Tilghman at Princeton early on said she wanted to see more "green haired" students at Princeton. She got fried, but we all caught her drift.
Apropos of nothing, Faust has of course been hailed as the first woman president at Harvard. A first for sure. Less noted is that she is a direct descendant of the second and third presidents at Princeton- Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr, Sr.
There is some French term for this..."le plus...etc.".</p>
<p>BusinessWeek is not The Star and I doubt they have many cub reporters.</p>
<p>The author--you might have saved yourself some backtracking yourself if you had checked him out first</p>
<p>"ANTHONY BIANCO has been a senior writer at BusinessWeek for twenty years, and is the coauthor of the magazine’s acclaimed cover story on Wal–Mart. He lives in New York City."</p>
<p>Maybe the new President needs some PR lessons.</p>
<p>Upon careful rereading of the Business Week article and the Crimson response article, I don't see any statement from Harvard that Faust was misquoted but rather the spin that a (presumably verbatim) quotation was taken out of context. In other words, the misquotation was done by the student headline writers for the Crimson article. :) </p>
<p>Thanks to barrons for reminding me why I thought this recently revived thread that I posted was worth posting in the first place.</p>