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sneeze-slayer t1_j6npg0s wrote

Yikes. I get that they don't have as big of an endowment as some of the universities listed in the article, but saying that PhD students get tuition remission is a little bonkers, since most are doing research for the university or even teaching courses.

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Little_Noodles t1_j6nv3yr wrote

It’s also among the more basic and universal things PhD students get. If a school isn’t offering tuition remission to PhD students they use for labor, then they’re doing something very, very unusual or it’s a program where graduate work is structured very differently than most disciplines.

Its not something to brag about. It’s probably the most bare minimum form of compensation for working PhD students in higher education.

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Shrewlord t1_j6ogb6k wrote

Most are working extremely long hours for a very small stipend. It's essentially low cost highly skilled labor for universities. It's absolutely criminal that this system has persisted for so long.

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Little_Noodles t1_j6p6o8g wrote

You’re right. And it’s still better paying than adjunct work, which is where most of these students will wind up.

Half my job as an adjunct was talking students out of the field. The other half was spent getting myself out.

I’m a big proponent of higher ed as an experience, but absolutely everything about its current financial model is disastrously unsustainable and predatory to almost everyone involved.

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NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn t1_j6o63b0 wrote

I hate when people bring up endowments when talking about higher ed like they are some magical pool of money that can be dipped into at any point in time for any reason. Endowment numbers that the public sees are an aggregate number of the value of all of the endowed (IE: invested funds created to sustain a specific thing) funds.

An endowed fund isn’t easily fungible. In order for money to be removed from an endowed fund, the donor who began the endowed fund would have to amend their agreement with the university. Most donors are extremely hesitant to do so because they specifically want their money to go towards a program they have a passion for and have chosen to endow a fund to help sustain that program in perpetuity. Even then, the maximum withdrawal rate that is typically allowed is 4-10% per year.

Endowments have no place in this discussion unless there are specific endowed funds that fund graduate stipends/salary, which I am sure exist. It’s a red herring. The money that should be discussed is the general budget. I am extremely curious as to where the $400m plus surplus from 2021-22 went.

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sneeze-slayer t1_j6o87h5 wrote

Right, but Princeton endowment was 37 billion in 2021, so six years ago at 4% they were generating 1.5 billion in interest every year. They simply have an order of magnatude more money to fund what they please.

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NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn t1_j6o9hvw wrote

And the interest earned from those accounts goes straight back into those accounts. That’s the whole point of endowing them. They are typically programs that wouldn’t exist without the endowed fund, or scholarship/financial aid dollars (in Princeton’s case, entirely need based financial aid since they don’t do scholarships). The endowment is wholly irrelevant to this discussion.

Where other university’s thrive is unrestricted giving (IE: Here’s a check made out to Temple for $400,000, do what you want with it). Temple is really bad at getting unrestricted donors, especially with the amount of alumni out there. That’s why the majority of Temple’s revenue is from tuition. .

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jmajek t1_j6o9zej wrote

Very interesting, thanks for the explanation. TIL.

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