Speaking for the Stand Columbia Society, Tao Tan is urging elite institutions—especially Columbia—to drop the illusion that they’re purely “private” when their survival increasingly depends on public money.
“It wasn’t that long ago—in fact, it was the 1980s—when some of the old hands at Columbia will tell you there were months when Columbia wasn’t sure it was able to make payroll.”
That fragility, Tan says, still exists today, even among asset-rich schools.
“Even universities that may be asset rich on paper might be fragile when it comes to cash flow.”
So what does this mean? That the idea of universities as wholly private, unaccountable institutions is outdated:
“Since 1945, there have been frankly no real private universities left in the United States other than Hillsdale College and a handful of small religiously affiliated schools.”
For research universities like Columbia and Harvard, federal money is foundational: “In many cases, a quarter to a third of their funding comes from the federal government.”
Tan’s message is clear: with public money should come public accountability. And if these schools want to preserve what once made them great, they need to accept reality—and reform accordingly.
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