THE TOPIC seems to be nearly unavoidable: privatization of the University. Every couple months when a new facet of the current budget crisis is revealed, someone suggests that the University privatize and eliminate state funding altogether. While 8 percent of the current fiscal budget may seem like a small amount, there is a myriad of reasons why the University should not and cannot become a private institution.
Let's touch on the practical side of the equation first because it is the portion of this debate most often mentioned: Yes, the University now receives a comparatively small portion of it's budget from the state, but the monetary situation is much more complex than that. First and foremost, the Commonwealth of Virginia owns all of the buildings that make up the University. The land that Jefferson walked to plan out the foundation of the Academical Village rests in the hands of the Commonwealth; it would be outrageously expensive to attempt to work out an arrangement with the Commonwealth to purchase the land and the buildings.
While the legislators in Richmond are not particularly fond of showering this school with funds, they are particularly fond of the number one ranked public institution in the nation. As the leader of the state's and even the country's public schools, the University reflects well upon the Commonwealth. The lawmakers in Richmond would be out of their mind to willingly give up such a crown jewel. It is a fact of life that our school is rather politically connected, and those connections keep any desire of the legislature to be rid of us strongly in check.
Surprisingly enough, the biggest push for privatization comes from the students themselves. To some, privatization is seen as some sort of magic fix that will suddenly make the ITC pay-to-print scheme go away or the dining hall food taste good. But while a private U.Va. would allow more financial freedom to hire professors and provide student services, the most widely felt effect of privatization would be the massive increase of tuition across the board.
In a broader sense than the issue of funding, we come back to the man who believed so much in public education that he started the University. In 1806, Jefferson said, "Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation." It would be a violation of the history of this university to privatize, for the same values that Jefferson established nearly 200 years ago.
There would be many people who simply could not attend this fine school were it under no longer a public university. Certainly, a degree of financial aid would still exist, but it would be significantly harder to provide for people who could not afford to pay the high tuition bill.
As much as we may complain about the degree of control that the lawmakers exercise over University policy, it is arguable that it is this same control that keeps us firmly in the mainstream of society. A private university can almost have too much control; and some over the years have delved into the ideological chasm favored by their administration. The state control over our University, though undesirable at times, does serve as a balance, keeping the general attitude of the University in line with that of the state.
Privatization may seem like an easy fix, but it is far from it. The Commonwealth and this school enjoy a symbiotic relationship -- each benefiting from the other. The money to privatize just isn't there, and the state would not let us go in the first place. However, above and beyond all, let us remember the words of Thomas Jefferson referring to the creation of a public university, "The exertions and the mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal," Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1821
(Daniel Bagley's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at dbagley@cavalierdaily.com.)
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