> And research is paid for (in theory) from grants and such, not tuition.

The former dean of Georgia Tech's College of Computing has a series of posts arguing that many (most?) universities actually lose money on research, contrary to the grants argument:

http://innovate-wwc.com/2010/07/05/why-universities-do-resea...

http://innovate-wwc.com/2011/05/18/if-you-have-to-ask-ten-su...