UCLA has a $10B endowment. I find it bollocks that they and these other academic institutions can't just dip into that for their researchers to (hopefully) ride out the current funding situation at a minimum.
But since I do know better:
- some of these endowments grow over time to infinity.
- that's tax-free gain/interest and any hedge fund would kill to get that special treatment.
As long as they have such special tax treatment, it is only fair they should stay in line with a framework that taxpayers provide.
The tax-free status - that's definitely something that could be changed by updating the laws (legislative). That sounds a lot better than the executive division starving UCLA of funds.
- Politics operates in reality, not ideals. There would never be such a legislation without a forcing function like this.
> They cannot legally redirect much of the endowment
Since endowments at top universities are huge, they don't need much. So how much before it's "illegal"?