Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="upstater, post: 3226685, member: 153"] The UConn budget is exactly the same as its revenue. It's a non-profit. It is breakeven within a couple million every single year. When the state told Herbst it was going to cut $30m from its taxpayer subsidy, I'm sure her hair was on fire. That's an almost unfathomable amount when you consider how little of the budget is fungible. But at the end of the year, the budget had to be breakeven. Even if the cost of educating athletes in non-material intensive majors is considerably less (and yes, the schools break costs down by major, each department is responsible for its own budget based on the headcount of butts in seats, & majors), the cost is still considerable. Say the $45k number represents an average of engineering students and philosophy students. It costs $60k to educate the engineer (which is why 40% of every science research grant goes to the lab/project itself rather than the university) and $30k to educate the philosophy student. Even if you make this argument (essentially that athletics is subsidizing engineering) you end up forgetting that 60% of research grants offset tuition and subsidize the education of athletes. With research in the amount of $400m, that's 30% of the budget, and a 18% subsidy for philosophy students. By the way, it shouldn't surprise that it costs $30k to educate a philosophy student when you consider that it costs $20k to educate a kindergartner in the state of Connecticut. [/QUOTE]