LordShiva and DaShi's homework: Teh Disadvantages of Elite Education

[KrazyHorse]

a) Single grants of that size are relatively rare
b) I specifically noted that the fed. gov't got better terms, in general

I don't know if the UofC publishes its finances, but if they do, you should be able to find out how much money flows from each dept. into the general fund...

I'm not even really plugged in to that side of the research (I don't write grants, etc.) but I know what a major headache it is for researchers.

[KrazyHorse]

In general, the engineering and bio sciences subsidize the physical sciences and math departments because of the requirement that all undergrads in those disciplines take intro calc, chem and physics classes. The intro classes are huge moneymakers for their respective departments because they're taught by a single prof and by very cheap TAs. The bio department is generally the recipient of similar subsidies from intro bio classes, but since the bio department is bigger than math, physics or chemistry (it has more undergraduates majoring in it, usually) its students shell out more than the department takes in from other students.

If a humanities or English department has a large required intro class then it's the recipient of similar subsidization. Generally non-sciences students don't have to take the intro sciences classes, so they don't funnel money out to the sciences this way.

To summarize, money flow looks like:

bio,engineering -> math,physics,chemistry (teaching)
bio,engineering,math,physics,chemistry -> everybody else (teaching+research)

[KrazyHorse]

The 9 month salaries/bennies for prof+TAs of a 330 person intro class run to ~450k at Hopkins (this includes the 20% remainder of 40k tuition which the dept. pays on TAs, and bears in mind that TAs for intro classes have to double dip, other than the head TA)

The tuition payments of those taking the class run to ~2 million (this assumes that the uni covers ~25% of the average undergrad's tuition).

The dept sees 70% of that, I'm told, giving us 1.4 mill

The building costs involved are not extraordinarily high; there's the operating costs as well as the amortized construction costs for a single large auditorium...which, by the way is used for 2 of these huge classes per semester (takes up < 5% of the floorspace in our department, and our building was, IIRC < 100 mill...note that it was funded by a donation from Michael Bloomberg) and ~15 small classrooms one hour a week (this is ~1/20th of their total usage)

5 mill amortized over...30+ years is only a couple or three hundred k per year. This leaves the dept. net ~600-700 k

The lab classes are similar in their funding costs (lab equipment is terribly inexpensive; the major difference is that there are 2 additional non-faculty full-time employees keeping the labs running properly)

In total the physics dept. rakes in close to 2 mill p.a. net of costs on its intro classes.

Much of that goes to fund prof. salaries for upper level and grad classes, which are not even close to cost-covering.

[Drake Tungsten]

What a fascinating look into the inner workings of an elite university, KH. Thank you for that.

[Riesstiu IV]

What a fascinating look into the inner workings of an elite university, KH. Thank you for that.

*Slurp, Slurp, Slurp*

.

[Drake Tungsten]

This troll deserves a third chance.