> I'm
> looking forward to the day when a private university goes public - does
> an IPO and recasts itself as a profit-making enterprise.
It's already here. The Oregon university system, which formerly subsidized the smaller, weaker schools via transfers from the rich, is now turning into a set of profit centers. The U of O, since it's a flagship campus, will do well, getting around $30-50 million in extra funding each year; but the other schools, of course, will lose out. The legislature, which is Republican, and the Governor, a Democrat, are promising extra funds to tide over the smaller schools during the transition. Simultaneously the whole university system has become deeply dependent on bequests, gifts and stock donations from wealthy alumni. If the stock market tanks, things will get ugly, because formerly protected professors are going to find themselves the first to be laid off (they can't fire us grad workers, because we get paid about 20% per credit-hour compared to what profs make).
But fear not, the proletariat will have the last laugh: the 1100 or so grad students over at OSU in Corvallis are doing a card drive to establish their very own union (http://www.orst.edu/groups/gsa/cge.html). As the organizers say, it's time for less classes and more struggle!
-- Dennis