University Creation Simulator: Can This Pipe-Dream Become a Reality?

This day started out gloomy as I just finished watching a video where ethics professor Dr. Julie Ponesse from The University of Western Ontario was dismissed from her position as she – within her rights as a Canadian – does not accept forced medical treatments as a mandate for her employment. Furthermore, a recent Substack article by Bari Weiss showcasing the resignation of Peter Boghossian at Portland State University, over the illiberal functions the modern university has become. Its upsetting watching these videos given how much these educators care about knowledge and teaching their students – but are denied that through bureaucratic dictates and identitarianism. I had to leave the computer screen and go for a short walk around my apartment complex and think how does one defeat this behemoth of a university system, and I developed a question: what is in a university?

I do not mean this in some esoteric or philosophical framework, I mean what is tangible in a university? And how does one start a university? I just did some basic digging to find some answers and here are some thoughts.

The first thing to focus on are the financial aspects of starting a private university. Not only dollars and cents, but human endowment as well. Say for a small private university you want 1500 students. According to NCES, the national average of student to professor ratio is 18:1 – thus, a private university of 1500 would require 84 faculty to teach. Endowments take on dual roles: how they come in and how they go out. Essentially endowments in this circumstance come in through investments on property, private equity (donations and private grants), tuition, and 501 c3 bonds. They go out through scholarships, facilities etc., professorships, library services, and other. Let us breakdown the cost needed for endowments at our private university – a rough estimate:

When you round this up, it takes 45 million in initial investments to start a small private university. Not a small amount, but in no way impossible, especially the means of getting money through treasuries, investments, tuition charges, and grants. Given private universities are exclusive, and this one would be a welcomed change toward effective learning with exciting ‘dissident’ professors, demand for education would be high compared to the supply creating exclusivity. An average private school tuition is $52,000, at 1500 students that is 78 million in tuition fees. If one even lowers this tuition fee to $20,000 per year, for 1500 students that is 30 million – 66% of the endowment coverage – leaving the remaining 15 million to come from private donations, property investment, and bond shares.

We all know, most of the inflated budgets come from administration costs, so what if the professors were the administrators, and took ownership of their own work? Sure this might levy more payments to professors willing to take on dual roles of administrators/educators. Ideally a small school would have general programs for arts, civics, education, law, STEM, and interdisciplinary social sciences. 34 full time educators spread out over 3 departments:

• 12 for Department of Liberal Arts (Anthropology, Art History, Civics and Politics, Literature/Linguistics, History, and Social Sciences).
• 12 for Department of Science (Astronomy/Physics, Biology/Biochemistry/Chemistry, Cognitive Sciences/Psychology, Mathematics)
• 10 for Department of Professional Designations (Education, Engineering, Law)

Each of these departments nominate a vice-president and a dean, the president becomes a member of a 9-member board of trustees to oversee decision making for the whole university, while the dean focuses on department specifics. They each take 4-year terms with votes. The board of trustees will consist of:

• President of the University (Chair) – (salary taken from the other account at $250,000).
• Vice-President Department of Liberal Arts
• Vice-President Department of Science
• Vice-President Department of Professional Designation
• Student Representative Department of Liberal Arts
• Student Representative Department of Science
• Student Representative Department of Professional Designation.
• Donor
• Donor

Majority votes on decision making will come from professors and students, as this should be the goal of a true liberal university.

On the surface, this seems basic and I am sure that I have missed certain points that factor into cost and management structures of a private university; however, seeing what is happening to good professors in universities, and how the structure of the university has failed in the past decade or so – I felt the urge in my free-time to create a plan, even though its more reserved as a pipe dream than an actualization. At this point, this is the only option in beating the current university system unwilling to change.

As always, I welcome feedback…