Dear Carma,
Thanks for your thoughts. While I appreciate your viewpoint, I don’t agree with all the facts as you state them. This is especially not the case with respect to the comparative costs of Minerva as contrasted with other universities.
Consider the cost of Minerva as against the cost of attending University of Texas. Undergraduate tuition at Minerva is $13,950 for all undergraduates. In-state tuition at University of Texas is slightly lower or roughly the same, depending on which college a Texas resident student attends, running from around $11,000 per year to around $13,000 per year. But University of Texas charges far higher tuition to students from out of state — from around $40,000 to $45,000 per year, three times as much as Minerva’s tuition of around $14,000. Minerva tuition is the same for all students. This is nearly never the case for state-funded public universities.
Here are the Minerva fees
https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/tuition-aid/tuition-fees/ <https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/tuition-aid/tuition-fees/>
Minerva admits students without considering financial capacity. Once accepted, students qualify for aid — often a significant proportion of the costs.
https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/tuition-aid/financial-aid/ <https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/tuition-aid/financial-aid/>
Housing and other services are charged separate to tuition. These seem to be reasonable at Minerva, and far less than at University of Texas. Residential services at Minerva cost $11,000 per year. Residential rates at University of Texas run from $12,000 to $20,000.
Despite Minerva’s name, Minerva is not touched by the gods or run by saints. They are doing a decent job. They charge far less than wealthy private universities, and less than many wealthy state universities.
Everyone who lives in today’s world is to some degree complicit in reproducing the world. I certain appear to be a wealthy, white cis-gender male. This is true no matter what I have done with my life, and it is true without respect to any actions I’ve taken to reduce inequality and injustice in the world.
To anyone from outside Texas, you probably look like a wealthy, white cis-gender female. As an associate professor at the University of Texas, you're not in the top 1% of US incomes — but you are in the top 1% of incomes on a global scale. And your income is far higher than the average US income.
If you don’t know who Stephen Kosslyn is, I can give you a few simple facts. He was the first person in his family to attend college. He did so at a time of greater opportunity, and he believes that everyone should benefit from similar opportunities. Kosslyn is a psychologist and neuroscientist who became a full professor and dean at Harvard before moving to Stanford to direct a research centre. From there, he went to Minerva.
He has left Minerva now to launch a new online education project called Foundry College
https://foundrycollege.org <https://foundrycollege.org/>
In my view, Kosslyn is working to find ways to provide good educational programs for everyone is a world of shrinking opportunity. Opportunities are shrinking in a world where people refuse to recognise education as an important common good.
How wealthy is Stephen Kosslyn? I don’t know. But I’ll compare my taxes with yours to suggest a difference in wealth and the capacity for private expenditure.
The highest personal income tax rate for very wealthy Texas residents runs around 3%. Based on the associate professor salary range at Texas, your US federal income tax rate probably runs around 24%. Since you’re not living off a bonus check from Goldman Sachs, I’d guess you pay a total of 27% or less for taxes.
Since 1987, I’ve lived in societies that have taxed roughly 50% of my income (Norway, Sweden, Australia). People from low-tax countries often ask me if I am unhappy to pay so much in taxes. My answer is that taxes are the price of a good society. Since my wife and I have no kids, they sometimes ask if I mind paying to educate other people’s children. My answer is that I like to have access to dental care, health care, banking, good pharmacies, effective internet, and all the other benefits of a modern high-tech nation. Since someone else’s kids grow up to provide those services, I’m happy to pay my share. Since we require universities to educate these folks — and lots of other important and interesting people — I’m happy to pay my share.
Stephen Kosslyn lives in California. You probably pay far less in taxes than he does, and I may pay more, depending on his income as a college president. Given his commitment to not-for-profit, low cost education, and his pensions from Harvard and Stanford, I wouldn’t imagine he is taking the highest salary possible. Since my pensions are not as good as his, I probably pay a higher rate but a lower total amount. But without respect to money, I wish that I’d have been half as productive as a researcher, educator, and thinker as Kosslyn.
Did three successful white cis-gender males founded Minerva? Yes. But that doesn’t make Minerva bad. Wealthy, white cis-gender males founded most of the great North American universities simply because most were established between the 1600s and the early 1900s when those were the kinds of people who were able to establish those kinds of institutions.
It’s useful to reflect on what the three founders of Minerva have done with their opportunities. And it is important to place the costs of attending Minerva in the context of college and university costs in general. Compared to most public universities and nearly all private universities, Minerva costs very little.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/ <http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/>
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Visiting Professor | Faculty of Engineering | Lund University ||| Eminent Scholar | College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning University of Cincinnati ||| Email [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Academia https://tongji.academia.edu/KenFriedman <https://tongji.academia.edu/KenFriedman> | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn <http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn/>
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