An unusually forthright statement
“The University of Calgary is a significant business … a $1.2-billion (a year) business. The space, specifically for the president, that the board of governors worked out of was embarrassing.”
Mr. Bob Ellard, VP Facilities Development, University of Calgary, quoted by Mark McClure, Calgary Herald, 18 November 2013. Ellard was explaining why he and his colleagues voted to spend eight million dollars renovating their offices after a budget cut.
Gloss: Ellard’s statement takes a controversial assumption for granted. Is a university an instrument for making money, with the exact services it provides accidental? Or is a university an institution for satisfying curiosity, with its financial aspects accidental?
Edit 2022-04-11: converted to block editor so formatting worked like before
Ellard’s remark is revealing precisely because of what it assumes without argument: that the scale of a university’s budget defines its identity. Framing the university primarily as a “$1.2-billion business” shifts attention away from its educational and intellectual mission and treats learning as a secondary byproduct rather than the central purpose.
This does not mean finances are irrelevant—universities must be financially sustainable—but the gloss highlights a crucial distinction. If revenue generation becomes the primary lens through which decisions are justified, then expenditures like office renovations appear logical. If, however, a university is understood chiefly as an institution devoted to inquiry, teaching, and public knowledge, then such spending demands a very different level of scrutiny.
This broader question—about how institutions balance core purpose against operational pressures—is explored further in discussions like this: here
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I would also think that no academic or private researcher is going to be impressed by the university president’s office. They are want to know what research does the university produce? Do students seem energetic and intellectually engaged, or just killing time and looking for someone to date and something to smoke? Is the library well-built and well-stocked and well-staffed? Can the president teach 300 undergrads at 8 am and publish papers anyone cites because they are useful, or does he or she just know how to manage budgets and hobnob with donors and MLAs?
I think it may well be that some aspects of ancient world studies, like Greek and Latin teaching and performance of ancient drama, are taken over by nonprofits and private tutors working on a shoestring. That is not necessarily a failure if they are very efficient at finding people who want to learn and helping them.