Just like Philadelphians

and Dr. Oz

I didn't know that it is the most expensive. Not a good fact. The budget of that place is staggering, which is why it needs to get back to core missions. But when bureaucrats get to decide how to spend other people's money, they tend to spend it on things important to them. Universities have lost their way. But I do have some hope with Dr. Bendapudi. She seems to have a toughness that the virtue-signaling Barron lacked. Time will tell.

If someone wants to step up and fund the center and its research, I'm sure PSU will listen. And I would never defend improper spending. You could cut a significant percentage of the administrative payroll without affecting the core mission one bit. You might even improve performance. Waste and entitlement naturally flow when administrators believe that the institution exists to serve them. But the same thing happens with certain faculty members who contribute nothing of value. Cut them all, get the finances in shape, and curtail or even cut tuition for those who can't afford it. PSU was a land grant institution that educated first-generation students from ag and blue-collar back grounds. They need to get that attitude back.

Penn State, like many universities, is strapped financially. When interest rates were low, universities engaged in an arms race of capital spending knowing full well that the pool of students was going to decline. Maybe they did it to gain a competitive advantage and attract the smaller group of available students. But the chickens have come home to roost. Barron overspent, and now she has to clean up his mess. Her focus should not be on, as you say, "paying no one anything extra." Her focus should be on the core missions: (1) teaching; and (2) quality research for which there is an actual demand. The greatest injustice right now is schools ramping up fees and expenses on the middle class and saddling them with crippling debt. And most of this was just to finance a bloated bureaucracy and to fund pet projects of people who are not focused on educating students. It's almost criminal.

So rather than create a bunch of jobs for race scholars that Penn State cannot afford, Bendapudi wants to focus on "clos[ing] racial gaps in graduation rates, promot[ing] career paths for staff and faculty members from underrepresented groups, and improv[ing] the campus climate for people of all backgrounds." Yes, please! She's looking forward, while many of the racial justice advocates are fixated on the past. Sure, we need a clear understanding of past injustices so we can identify current developments and ensure we don't go back there again. But that has already been done, many times over. (Seriously, when was the last time you saw original, ground-breaking scholarship on racism?) What young people need today are the tools to excel and to move forward. A more inclusive middle and upper income economic class in this country is justice. It also is the mission of the University. At least Penn State now has a president with some stones.