One of the most aggravating things about closely observing higher education is seeing all money flowing into higher education coffers through gifts that could be put to much better use. Every year, there are huge grants in bazillions of dollars given to universities that will either not matter because the school already has an endowment in the gazillions of dollars or the money will be used to hire an additional twelve Assistant Vice-Provosts for Diversity and Exclusion (of conservative perspectives).
But then, the rich are different than you and I, and we have no choice but to suffer their eccentricities. Somehow it seems worse to watch so many otherwise sensible people in the middle class reflexively dash off a check to their alumni fund at old Wazoo State. Too often, handing money to academic administrators is equivalent to giving the car keys to a teenager who just got kicked out of rehab for the third time in a month. If they aren’t going to build a luxurious dorm for football players with 24-hour room service (including massages), or if they aren’t going to bloat the staff worse than the contestants at a Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, or if they don’t endow an “academic” center which has a single function of lobbying the state government for more funding, they are very likely to do something silly with the money.
That’s why Jenna Robinson and I wrote this article detailing some sensible alternatives people who wish to give to higher education—but who would really like to make a difference instead of feeding the worst aspects of academia.