In a recent post looking at Kenneth Ricci’s $100 million gift to the University of Notre Dame, I argued that gifts like Ricci’s reward schools that have failed to control tuition costs, and that while more financial aid is nice, it doesn’t help students who are expected to pay full freight—roughly $300,000 at Notre Dame—or something close to it.
Then I read Matt Taibbi’s recent piece in Rolling Stone, titled “The Great College Loan Swindle.” In an article chock full of alarming facts and anecdotes, this nugget regarding the University of Wisconsin (UW) stood out:
UW raised tuition by 5.5 percent six years in a row after 2007. The school blamed stresses from the financial crisis and decreased state aid. But when pressed during a state committee hearing in 2013 about the university’s finances, UW system president Kevin Reilly admitted they held $648 million in reserve, including $414 million in tuition payments. This was excess hidey-hole cash the school was sitting on, separate and distinct from, say, an endowment fund.