Universities & The COVID-19 Money Trail

There are bad people in this world who don’t mind doing horrible things to get rich. Some of these people have overtaken the higher education system of the United States.

Jan 08, 2022

During a recent appearance on Bret Weinstein’s DarkHorse Podcast, Dr. Peter McCullough perplexingly observed:

We have the top medical system in the United States. Uniquely, we have 5,600 hospitals, 2,200 acute care centers, and 300 medical schools. Do you know that not a single medical institution has their own researched protocol? We are two years into [COVID-19] and it’s shocking that there’s no ‘Harvard Treatment Protocol’ for COVID-19. There’s no ‘Mayo Clinic’ or ‘Duke’ [protocol]. They have their own individual protocols, which they actually showcase for their research and innovation, for every [other] medical problem under the sun. Suddenly, with COVID-19, our academic intelligencia [are silent] and our major medical schools have fallen flat.[i]

Dr. McCullough made a similar observation a few days later while on the Joe Rogan Experience. So, why do medical schools lack COVID-19 protocols?

The answer to this question, is obvious: There are bad people in this world who don’t mind doing horrible things to get rich.

Some of these people have overtaken the higher education system of the United States. Thanks to greedy university bureaucrats, attending college is now a waste of time and money for most people. What is worse, is that these evil bureaucrats are now getting rich with the help of Wall Street and Big Pharma—at the expense of the American people.

For decades, America’s higher education system has acted as a wealth redistribution scheme for a few select leftist bureaucrats profiting from the destruction of American society.

Rather than teaching students how to think critically and navigate the complexities of life, our higher education system tricks children into a lifetime of indentured servitude in exchange for a nonsense education.

In effect, University Administrators are getting rich by tricking children into taking on crippling debt, which is never dischargeable in bankruptcy, in exchange for a useless piece of paper signifying only the recipients’ capacity to espouse the Anti-American ideals of today’s mainstream Democrat party.

Given that our Nation’s colleges are dominated by Democrats, it should be unsurprising that they are indoctrination camps. In fact, professors are 95% more likely to give to Democrat political campaigns as compared to Republican.[ii] For each Republican among “Health” teachers in higher education, there are apparently ninety-nine Democrats.[iii] The same ratio for “English” teachers is three Republicans for ninety-seven Democrats.[iv]

To the extent that a given professor exercises political bias in his or her teaching, and insofar as that professor is persuasive, the impact manifests on the left. This disproportionate balance of ideology within our higher education system is wreaking havoc on American Society. The impact of this exposure is apparent, considering that the amount of time one spends earning college degrees correlates with the individual’s likelihood of later self-identifying as having “consistently liberal political values.”[v]

Recently, the leftward shift of America’s higher education system has been exacerbated by greed.

In order to maximize tuition as a source of revenue and, thereby, ensure their grossly inflated salaries and benefit packages, high-level University Bureaucrats have long encouraged lazy and incapable students to take on insurmountable debt for degrees known to be objectively worthless.

Using a new Department of Education dataset and Census Bureau surveys, the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) recently examined 30,000 bachelor’s degree programs at 1,775 higher education institutions in America to determine approximate return on investment (ROI) of a college degree.[vi] Specifically, the report examined the amount a student can expect to earn over his or her lifetime relative to degree specialization (e.g., engineering, art, psychology, etc.) less the direct and indirect costs of attending a four-year university.

The study found that students who graduate on time (in four years) have a median net ROI of $306,000. This number drops to $129,000, however, considering the risks of dropping out and the taking longer than four-years to graduate.

Unsurprisingly, some types of degrees, such as engineering, computer science, nursing and economics are shown to produce returns of $500,000 or more over the recipient’s life.

Some might be surprised to learn, however, that over one quarter of programs considered in this study are shown to have a negative ROI. Meaning, if a student decides to pursue certain degree programs, it is more likely than not that the student will never see a positive return on the cost of his or her investment in college.

The evidence is in, and people earning degrees in art, music, philosophy, religion, psychology, and similar social studies and humanities specializations are financially worse off having attended college as compared to if they had never enrolled.[vii]

An externality is a cost caused by a business that is not financially incurred by that business. For instance, in refining oil, the cost of pollution is paid by society rather than the producer of the oil. The woke idiots pouring out of our nation’s Universities are equivalent to pollution spewing out of the spire of an oil refinery. Just like big oil and tobacco executives, University Administrators are getting rich and leaving us to clean up the mess.

So, when Starshine dies in twenty years in a coffee brewing accident still owing tens of thousands of dollars on his/her/its student loans because he/she/it was encouraged to enroll in the NYU’s gender studies program after failing out of business school, we get to pick up the bill.

Regardless of whether the institution is private or public, all higher education intuitions act as for-profit enterprises seeking to lower costs and maximize revenues.

People in our society do not seem to grasp the fact that there is no such thing as a “non-profit” entity. Generally, no legal entity can continuously operate without net positive cash flows. Even “non-profit” organizations must make more money than they spend or, eventually, they will cease to exist. In other words, just like for-profit businesses, a nonprofit business cannot exist in the long-term without being profitable (or, at least, breaking even).

Because universities’ revenue streams are based (partially) on enrollment, higher enrollment translates to higher revenues. In turn, increased revenue means higher pay for top university bureaucrats.

Per salary.com, the average salary of a College President ranges from around $230,000 to $426,000.[viii] This is true, even at public universities where administrators work for state governments and, therefore, are purportedly “servants of the people.”

Institutions with higher student enrollment and, hence revenue streams, usually pay higher salaries to their administrators. For instance, Arizona State University (one of the largest public institutions in the country) pays its President nearly $800,000 per year (not including perks and bonuses).[ix] Comparatively, the President for the University of New Mexico (with a much smaller student body), makes about half of that sum (again, excluding perks and bonuses).[x]

Notably, such large salaries are not limited to university presidents. Large numbers of department chairs, directors, coaches, deans of individual schools (such as law schools or medical schools) within universities, and other bureaucrats on the business side of the operation have equally astonishing salaries. Over forty University of New Mexico employees earn more than $400,000 per year (not including additional compensation earned such as bonuses and various perks).

At public colleges, far too many of these “state employees” receive grossly inflated salaries in addition to perks that most can only dream of. These perks include housing and vehicle allowances, various health and wellness benefits, retirement contributions and opportunities for large-yearly bonuses.[xi]

These bonuses, which can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, can be earned for “undisclosed reasons.”[xii] Indeed, Freedom of Information Act requests into bonus incentives for public university employees, such as University of Virginia (UVA) President, Jim Ryan, who recently received a $200,000 bonus (on top of his yearly salary of $750,000, other perks such as multiple golf club memberships, a full housing allowance including maid services, a vehicle allowance, etc.), are often denied.[xiii]

Consequently, University Employees happily encourage children to take on astronomical debt in exchange for a nonsense “education.” Year after year, these bureaucrats rake in the money without any accountability. All the while, the average graduate won’t pay off his or her college debt for the next twenty years.[xiv] This is a cyclical pattern, and it is pervasive across our Nation.

In order to maximize tuition as a revenue stream, it is in the best interest of universities (and the bureaucrats that run them) to lower dropout rates by creating easier degree paths because the administrators will be paid so long as the student attends, irrespective of whether the degree is valuable to the recipient.

The evil nature of college administrators is further evidenced by the fact that tuition has gone up 1200% since 1980 (as compared to 236% inflation during the same time).[xv] For the past three decades, the cost of attaining a four-year undergraduate degree from a traditional private college has almost doubled. [xvi] Concurrently, the cost of a similar degree from a public institution has practically tripled.

Today, far too many individuals graduating from college in the United States can look forward to a lifetime of indentured servitude in exchange for an abjectly useless piece of paper. That is, assuming they earn that piece of paper. Currently, the overall undergraduate dropout rate in the United States is 40% (50% for public universities). In all, Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student loans.[xvii]

In order to maximize tuition as a revenue stream, it is in the best interest of universities (and the bureaucrats that run them) to lower dropout rates by creating easier degree paths.

This makes sense given that, today, a college student can earn a degrees in a topics like “gender studies” which, at a foundational level, does not require any logical consistency. Thus, even those who lack all capacity to think can earn degrees. Today, many college degrees merely amount to expensive participation trophies handed out by bureaucratic societal pericytes.

In effect, college is nothing more than a redistribution scheme whereby university administrators earn huge salaries in exchange for tricking children into taking out non-dischargeable debt in exchange for “the college experience,” an in-depth brainwashing, and a piece of paper, assuming the individual graduates. University employees generally have a vested interest (i.e., their incomes) in encouraging America’s children to make short-sighted choices with life-long consequences and they have done so, openly, for decades.

Unjustifiably expensive tuition, room and board, etc. are not the only ways that these state bureaucrats stuff their pockets.

As explained above, there is no such thing as a “non-profit” entity. In order to maximize revenues, Universities (including most public universities) now leverage their endowments (the total amount of their investible assets originally funded by private gifts and taxpayer dollars) into investments generating billions of dollars in annual revenues. Thus, thanks to their huge endowment portfolios, even if enrollment numbers drop, the huge salaries and bonuses won’t necessarily dry up.

Following the “Yale Model,” most university endowments are managed by “non-profit” organizations that are “affiliates” of universities. For instance, Harvard (a private, “non-profit” University) has its endowment (currently totaling more than $50 billion) managed by the Harvard Management Company.[xviii] To provide another example, UVA’s endowment is managed by the “non-profit” University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO).

Exactly “where” these “non-profit” affiliates invest their billion-dollar endowments is hidden from public view. In other words, the details of their investment portfolios are generally not disclosed, even though many of these “non-profit” affiliates are managing state funds and acting as agents of the state.

Those who seek to find out where the endowment funds are invested are often met resistance. For example, despite nearly a year of public scrutiny from environmentalists at the University of Virginia, UVIMCO has repeatedly refused to disclose the details of its fossil fuel investment portfolio.[xix] Why? What do these bureaucrats have to hide?

While droves of Americans have suffered financial turmoil from the COVID-19 pandemic, these “non-profit” affiliates made a killing for their university counterparts, especially at “elite” schools.

Thanks to Harvard Management Company, the school’s endowment value “soared to 53.2 billion as of . . . June 30[, 2021]—an increase of $11.3 billion (27 percent) from 41.9 billion a year earlier.”[xx] Even public institutions saw huge returns on their endowment investments in conjunction with COVID-19. Under UVIMCO’s guidance, UVA’s endowment grew 49% in fiscal year 2021 (growing from $9.9 to $14.5 billion).

On top of that, the individuals running the endowment management companies (again, these are agents of the state) are paid millions of dollars, annually.

Per UVIMCO’s tax return, five of its employees made more than a million dollars (including bonuses) for Tax Year 2020.[xxi] Private schools pay their non-profit management groups even more, Harvard Management Company has ten employees that earned more than a million dollars in compensation for the same period (seven of those made more than three million dollars).

UVA and Harvard are not alone in seeing massive returns relative to the COVID-19 period. In fact, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, Duke, Vanderbilt, Illinois, California all experienced multi-billion dollar returns (many, nearly doubling their endowments).[xxii] These are just a few examples of the norm.

While Americans suffer, while homelessness skyrockets, while hope for the future is evaporating due to authoritarianism, these university endowment funds and the people managing them bet big against returning to normal American society, and they made sure that their bets paid off.

Again, we should be unsurprised considering the types of individuals sitting on the boards of these “non-profit” investment groups. For example, UVIMCO’s board of directors includes:

1)   Mitchell Cohen, Managing Director of Trilogy Search Partners (a private equity firm);
2)  Thomas Baltimore Jr., Chairman, President & CEO of Park Hotels & Resorts (a real estate investment trust focused on hotel properties);
3)  John Connaughton, Co-Managing Partner of Baine Capital (an investment firm focused on private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, etc.);
4)  John Harris Jr., Retired Senior Banker & Executive of Deutsche Bank;
5)  Meredith B. Jenkins, Chief Investment Officer of Trinity Church Wall Street;
6)  Henry H. McVey, Partner & Head of the Global Macro, Balance Sheet and Risk, CIO of KKR Balance Sheet, Mr. McVey also sits on the Counsel of Foreign Relations; Andrew T. Mulderry, Co-Chief Investment Officer of Willet Advisors (the firm that manages the “philanthropic” assets of Michael R. Bloomberg, which apparently include private equity, venture capital, and credit assets);
7)  Timothy P. O’Hara, Managing Director of Blackrock Alternative Investors; and
8)  Meryl B. Witmer, General Partner of Eagle Capital Partners.

Considering the foregoing list of names and the fact that investments are kept private, the phrases “conflict of interest” and “self-dealing” come to mind. Unfortunately, whether these individuals are self-dealing is unknown because, as mentioned above, even public universities refuse to disclose how their endowments are invested.

Although not discussed widely (yet), self-dealing appears to be a common phenomenon among board members advising organizations like UVIMCO. For example, a 2018 investigation by the Detroit Free Press into the University of Michigan’s endowment revealed that the University of Michigan invested in companies owned or co-led by at least four of the nine individuals managing its endowment.

In addition to UVIMCO’s Wall Street connections, two notable individuals sit on UVIMCO’s board.

First, is John G. Macfarlane III, Managing Partner of Arrochar Group (an organization consisting of an investment consulting and asset management company, an investment firm that holds interests in “private companies and funds,” and a real estate investment company). Mr. Macfarlane III is notable here for his other roles at UVA. He also sits on UVA’s College Foundation Board, which is another non-profit affiliate managing investments on behalf of the University and its subsidiaries. Additionally, he sits on the Board of UVA’s Licensing and Venture Group, another non-profit affiliate that executes profitable licensing agreements with private companies (like pharmaceutical and biomedical research companies) on behalf of UVA.

Today, it is estimated that more than two-thirds of the Nation’s biomedical research conducted at universities is funded by private investors (i.e., Big Pharma) through licensing agreements.[xxiii]

Often, such agreements include gag-clauses preventing the researcher from publishing anything deemed unfavorable by the funding party.

The final member of (and biggest problem with) UVIMCO’s board of directors is dissimilar from the foregoing insofar as she is not a banker or asset manager. Her name is Jennifer, “J.J.” Wagner Davis, and she is UVA’s Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer.[xxiv]

The practice of having university executives overseeing affiliate investment groups appears ubiquitous throughout higher education. For instance, Michael Crow (President of Arizona State University) oversees ASU Enterprise Partners (a parent organization to five nonprofits tasked with providing revenue streams for the university, including a private investment group, a real estate investment group, and a technology firm aimed at securing revenues from the intellectual property rights arising from university inventions).

Paul J. Finnegan, Treasurer of Harvard, is also Chair of the Harvard Management Company’s Board along with Harvard’s CEO, Lawrence S. Bacow. To provide a final example, L. Rafael Reif, President of MIT, also sits on the board of the MIT Investment Management Company (along with other evil individuals such as Diane B. Greene, who sits on the board of Google’s parent company, Alphabet).

Given that our Nation’s “public health experts” are employed almost entirely by its higher education system and given the cozy relationship between higher-education institutions and Wall Street, the huge growth of university endowments relative to COVID-19 makes sense.

For example, pursuant to UVIMCO’s earnings reports (available on its website), between June 30, 2019, and June 30, 2020, UVA’s endowment returned just over three percent. The following year, the endowment nearly doubled. So, what changed?

As a matter of general strategy, “UVIMCO divides the endowment into two main parts: the big $14.5 billion Long Term Pool designed to maximize returns over the long term, and a small, conservatively managed Short Term pool of $161 million to get better returns on cash reserves with near-term liquidity needs.”[xxv]

During the 2019–2020 fiscal year, UVIMCO’s Long Term Pool allocated most of its assets to Public Equity (stocks, or ownership in publicly traded companies) 32%, Long/Short Equity (long equity means investments in stocks that are expected to appreciate whereas short equity means short positions (think The Big Short)) 20.4%, and Private Equity 18.9%. In essence, during the subject period, the majority (52.4%) of UVIMCO’s Long Term investments were allocated to the stock market.

Following a relatively poor performance in 2019–2020, UVA appears to have adjusted its investment strategy. As observed by James A. Bacon, of Bacon’s Rebellion:

Private equity (which includes venture capital) now comprises 26% of the entire portfolio[ up from 18.9% compared to the prior year]. The investment return from last year for that period class was up 98.7%. Publicly traded equities, accounting for 30% of the portfolio, were up 51.2%.
. . .
While a considerable chunk of the endowment is restricted to uses determined by donors, not all of it is. The unrestricted Strategic Investment Fund (SIC), which is part of the Long Term Pool, comprises 17% of endowment assets. Gains in the SIC create large sums for UVA administrators to spend as they see fit.[xxvi]

It appears that many of our Nation’s problems could be the result of self-dealing secretive relationships between Wall Street, university administrators, and private companies subsidizing the cost of their biomedical research with taxpayer dollars.

In essence, these investment affiliates have zero oversight;[xxvii] are run by Wall Street bankers; are unwilling to disclose the particulars their investment portfolios (despite, often, being responsible for public property); and include board members that employ and, thereby, control many of the Nation’s “public health experts.”

So, why is it that not a single medical institution has their own researched protocol?

Perhaps: America’s “higher-education” institutions—acting pursuant to their modus operandi (antithetically to American interests)—and the individuals charged with directing their endowments, adjusted their portfolios following a down year and acted to conflate the perceived risks of COVID-19 to: (1) create optimal circumstances for their investments to profit, and (2) to protect their relationships with Big Pharma.

It is time to recognize the fact that the “medical experts” and institutions supporting them have a financial interest in promoting a false narrative regarding COVID-19. This begs the question: Why are we funding Universities?

[i] Covid: The Path not Taken – DarkHorse Podcast with Dr. Peter McCullough, at 104:12.