"The term 'cost shifting,' as I use it, refers to those items in a university's budget that used to be reimbursed by the federal government but are no longer paid for by them"
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Vest’s phrasing is bureaucratic on purpose: “as I use it” is a quiet power move that narrows the debate before it begins. He’s not offering a hot take; he’s defining the terms of engagement in a policy fight where whoever names the problem gets to assign blame. “Cost shifting” sounds like a neutral accounting phenomenon, not a political choice. That’s the point. It reframes a cut in federal support as a migration of expenses, as if the costs themselves are calmly walking to a new address.
The subtext is a warning to two audiences at once. To policymakers: you can stop writing checks, but you can’t make the underlying costs disappear; they’ll reappear elsewhere in the university’s ecosystem. To the public and campus stakeholders: rising tuition, higher indirect charges, squeezed departments, and the scramble for philanthropy aren’t simply the result of wasteful universities. They’re downstream effects of a federal retreat from the full price of research and institutional infrastructure.
The key word is “reimbursed.” Vest is talking about the hidden scaffolding of higher education: compliance, facilities, libraries, labs, administration that exists because modern research is regulated, audited, and capital-intensive. When Washington decides those expenses are “no longer paid for,” universities don’t become lean startups; they reallocate, cross-subsidize, and, yes, pass costs onto students or non-research funds.
Contextually, Vest is speaking from the late-20th/early-21st century university presidency world, where public funding eroded while expectations for world-class research only grew. The intent is to make that contradiction legible - and politically actionable.
The subtext is a warning to two audiences at once. To policymakers: you can stop writing checks, but you can’t make the underlying costs disappear; they’ll reappear elsewhere in the university’s ecosystem. To the public and campus stakeholders: rising tuition, higher indirect charges, squeezed departments, and the scramble for philanthropy aren’t simply the result of wasteful universities. They’re downstream effects of a federal retreat from the full price of research and institutional infrastructure.
The key word is “reimbursed.” Vest is talking about the hidden scaffolding of higher education: compliance, facilities, libraries, labs, administration that exists because modern research is regulated, audited, and capital-intensive. When Washington decides those expenses are “no longer paid for,” universities don’t become lean startups; they reallocate, cross-subsidize, and, yes, pass costs onto students or non-research funds.
Contextually, Vest is speaking from the late-20th/early-21st century university presidency world, where public funding eroded while expectations for world-class research only grew. The intent is to make that contradiction legible - and politically actionable.
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| Topic | Learning |
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