About a month ago, we noted that federal revenue accounted for almost a third of the annual UC budget, the pie on the right.* A lot of that comes from med school receipts from research grants and revenues from Medicare and Medicaid. Since not all campuses have med schools, the percentage would vary considerably at the campus level with those with med schools more vulnerable than those without.
What about Harvard? It has a med school, but it doesn't own hospitals. It has a network of hospitals affiliated with it where research and training takes place. The alumni group at Columbia from which we have been drawing data about that university made an adjusted calculation for Harvard, factoring in the Harvard elements at affiliated hospitals.** The adjustment raised the Harvard operating budget to account for Harvard-related activity at the affiliated hospitals. In its calculation, almost 43% of the adjusted operating budget for Harvard comes from the feds, the pie on the left.
Given the roughness of the calculations for Harvard, we can say that Harvard and UC are similar on that dimension.
Where they are different is in operating scale and endowments. UC's operating budget is $53.6 billion. Harvard's budget is $6.5 billion but when adjusted as above it gets moved up to $12.8 billion. Harvard's endowment is $53.2 billion. So even on an adjusted basis, Harvard's endowment is over 4 times its operating budget. UC's systemwide endowment is $29.5 billion but the campuses have their own separate endowments. Even so, putting all the UC endowments together would get you a number just comparable to a year's operation.
As has been pointed out by many, endowments are not free money. Donations often earmark their funds for particular purposes. Still Harvard is (much) better positioned than UC for a war with the feds.
====
*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/03/almost-one-third.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment