Colleges where everyone works and there's no tuition
A number of people have commented on how this model of work-study is unrealistic because it relies on endowments for it to work.<p>I think the argument can be flipped. The problem is that of incentives and the wrong culture dont allow the debt-free, work-study program to be more widespread, by leveraging endowments.<p>Take for example a place like harvard.<p>Consider that the objective of a harvard portfolio manager is to grow its prestige and carry incentive payout, by increasing its AUM and reinvesting returns. The primary incentive of the fund manager is not to generate income for student use.<p>You then have the same problems on the administration side. Their chief objective is not to lower overhead for students, but to increase admin count, payroll, nonstudent &quot;research&quot;. Arguably this culture permeates down to alumni giving which is why oftentimes gifts are restricted. Alumni do not want gifts to fund admin largesse. Administrations with clear mission statements (&#x27;debt free students&#x27;) would have far more leverage in fundraising towards that goal.<p>So to complain that using endowment for tuition is &quot;cheating&quot; is missing the point: endownment is a critical to bridge the gap between student labor value and total tuition.<p>Instead, we should look at universities with higher endowments with deep suspicion. Is it a culture of misaligned incentives that is resulting in a huge debt burden to students ?<p>Why are too many US universities failing to provide a debt-free path to kids; when the work-centric universities in this article prove that debt-free graduation is an attainable goal?