Somebody requested Willie Sutton, the infamous financial institution robber, why he robbed banks. “As a result of that’s the place the cash is,” he replied.
Should you had been to ask the elite universities why they’re opening campuses in Washington, DC, you’ll get the same reply: As a result of that’s the place the cash is.
Carol Folt, UCLA‘s president, described the brand new outpost because the “Trojan Embassy,“ as if the college is a nation unto itself. So many universities have positioned campuses close to Dupont Circle in Washington, that the realm has been described as “a type of Embassy Row for non-local increased Ed establishments “
Why are so many universities organising store a whole lot of miles from their flagship campuses? School leaders articulate every kind of high-minded motivations. Some instructed Inside Increased Ed that their establishments “are more and more seeking to set up or fortify bases for growing relationships with policymakers and grant writing authorities places of work. UCLA’s president mentioned she hopes the brand new campus will assist UCLA “play a bigger position in shaping federal coverage “on a variety of points.
One other increased schooling spokesperson defined the colleges’ presence in DC this manner: “Between what’s happening within the political realm and what’s happening within the grant making world, it’s turning into extra aggressive to get this federal funding, and these are enormous elements of those campuses’ income streams…. They imagine in the event that they’re solely planted in a single spot, they’ll have much less of a voice “
Or, as Willie Sutton would possibly’ve put it, the colleges are in Washington, DC, as a result of that’s the place the cash is. Like crack addicts, American faculties are hooked on federal cash, and so they wish to be nearer to their provider. Or, to make use of one other analogy, the colleges have grow to be a bunch of hookers lined up on Pennsylvania Avenue—whores who will flip any trick for money.
The universities will say that their District of Columbia presence advantages college students. In Washington, increased schooling leaders argue’ college students can study the artwork of politics, policymaking, and grant writing.
I disagree. Washington, Like most American metropolises, is an more and more harmful place to reside. Why would any pupil wish to take out pupil loans to reside in an costly, crime-ridden metropolis teaming with venal lobbyists, sociopathic politicians, and unelected bureaucrats who imagine they’ve the divine proper to inform Individuals dwelling in flyover nation the right way to reside their lives.
Furthermore, a school schooling turns into dearer with every passing yr. Why ought to college students pay for department campuses in Washington, DC, which primarily exist to feed faculty leaders’ pathological hubris and grandiosity?
