Hacker News Reader

there are large positive externalities to major research unis. imposing a $300m/yr tax because of anti-ivy sentiment means net fewer researchers, grad students, funded residencies, etc.

do people just no longer believe in win wins? if someone else is successful or impactful they must be taken down?

View on HN

It mainly means fewer bureaucrats and administrators and more luxurious campus facilities. Which is where all the growth is in university spending these days.

People believe in win/wins.

Universities aren't that.

more funding for science is good

Your wish is my command.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology now has 500 billion dollars to spend on gain of function research.

Yes, but the majority of the funding goes to the increasingly bloated institutional overhead. NYU takes 61% of research grants [1], while Columbia takes 64.5% [2]. That doesn't include other fees that PIs might pay in addition. These percentages keep going up year-over-year and are even into the 70% range at some institutions.

[1]: https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/research/documents/OSP/N... [2]: https://www.finance.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com