Re:Why I’m Giving $1.8B for College Financial Aid
by yesenadam on Monday November 19, 2018 @05:57AM
(#18485507)
Thank you, very well put. (I really should've stayed out of this issue about which I know nothing.)
Sure, I get that it might have undesirable consequences, like creating a harmful habit or addiction, but also 'such a donation to a state school' would mean (obviously) a relatively poor school gets a lot of money, which seems to me a good thing. No?! It almost seems like people are saying....that all mega-donations should go to schools that already have lots of money. Which does seem going overboard a bit.
Re:Why I’m Giving $1.8B for College Financial Aid
by 1123581321 on Monday November 19, 2018 @12:18PM
(#18487902)
Yes, I do agree that state schools also need alum support. The large public universities I’m familiar with have plenty of buildings named after wealthy people and are facing budget crises that affect affordability, so they could use more money.
I could see trouble if a state school doesn’t effectively manage endowments and receives too much money to handle, but as long as proper governance exists elsewhere, I don’t see how concentrated donor influence could hurt the school more than the money would help, even if the money weren’t allocated as well as it could’ve been.
There’s a good article on unintended consequences here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences A lot of debate in philanthropy policy deals with these, so it’s important to understand how someone can disagree with something no one has explicitly advocated for, but could happen if the advocated course is taken.