Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

From “Ivy League Reigns Supreme as Princeton, Harvard Yale come out on top for second year running in US college rankings” in Dailymail.co.UK (refers to 2014-15) (accessed from “The History of the Ivy League” link, nearby; image also has slide show with charts of the top 10 universities and liberal arts colleges)

[Preface to the Post ” ‘Human Ecology’ (Colleges of), Psychology, and Cornell. Why The History of the American University System Still Matters.”) published March 4, 2018, which post’s short-link ends “-8F5”]

Understanding those models is part of understanding one’s place as a citizen of the United States of America, college graduate or not; whether employed (including within academia!), an employer or unemployed, and whether long-term independently self-sufficient or not. Those not employed, not independently self-sufficient, or not college graduates especially ought to know: it sheds light on the available options and on the creation and inter-generational maintenance of income-disparities and class differences.

(Wikipedia lists members of the “Ivy League” — ALL of these are private!): Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. The term Ivy League has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism.”

“The History of the Ivy League” from “Best College Reviews.org” (chosen here because it’s a short, interesting summary, and names founding dates and home states of the above eight, and briefly explains and dates the term “Ivy League” (ca. 1950s)):

“Accomplishments and Cultural Impacts”

Each Ivy League college has its own unique accomplishments that make it important. All carry a certain reputation with them, and each school has programs that excel primarily in the medical and law fields, making them some of the most sought-after schools in the world. Their admissions process is very selective, which helps the schools ensure that they only accept the best and brightest. Many famous people have graduated from Ivy League schools, including recent presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. This prestige leads many to believe that these colleges are only for the wealthy and elite. Often, companies look for Ivy League graduates as potential employees, usually preferred by law firms, medical facilities, and large corporations. It has long been coveted to have earned a degree from an Ivy League school. Today, there are other competitors that some claim to be just as good as their Ivy counterparts. Some of these well-known schools include Duke University, Johns Hopkins,** MIT, Vanderbilt, and Georgetown University, to name a few. The Ivy League schools are still excellent in both academia and in sports, and they have left a legacy of higher education with an exceptional track record and reputation to go along with them.

**bolded here only because it comes up in association with Cornell in today’s post….

“The History of the Ivy League” from “BestCollegeReviews.org

Now — unlike when some of the most famous institutions were founded — as corporations or government entities, universities must declare their status — public or private.  If public under state administration, they’re tax-exempt as government entities; if private, they’re typically also tax-exempt, which itself helps attract wealth.  To look at or follow a financial profile of any university or its parts, one must start with its audited financial reports, which will come under one of two choices — those for public entities (CAFRs) or those for private ones (audited financial reports).

One difference between those two forms is availability.  Universities as government entities have to provide them.  Universities as private entities have to “make them available” but that can legally be “by request” and limited to only recent years — making comparison across time (let alone across universities) a project that requires either independent wealth OR a source of revenue to obtain staff.

Huge Size Defeats Following Finances of Specialized Centers within either kind of university from financial reports: In the 21st century, and writing this blog, I’ve continued to notice in place after place (both public and private) how many “centers” are named after their sponsors/donors and tend to produce related spin-off companies (often also tax-exempt) — but try climbing back up the financial trail, or even map it to locate the finances of such sponsored centers, or even professorships by looking at any university’s public-access financial reports — and you’ll quickly see it’s typically impossible. My perspective is that it shouldn’t be. These centers and endowed professorships are helping make and sustain public policy — and this dilemma is taxation without representation.

It has come up repeatedly within these blog dealing with some of the above list of universities (the “Ivies”) AND some of the largest  public research universities (public) filing as public institutions (U Minnesota, U Berkeley, etc.).  When you consider, as described above, that among the qualities of those top-notch universities are their MEDICAL and LAW programs — and role of medicine and law in government itself (and the public funds dedicated to it — that’s a major issue.