Our modern university system comprises Halls Of Ivy — And Crumbling Plaster:
More than half the buildings on U.S. campuses were slapped up in the 1960s and ’70s, a period when enrollment nearly doubled. Today those buildings are pushing 40. It’s not a pretty picture. At Kansas State University, limestone exteriors are crumbling, the electrical system shoots sparks on humid days (workers call the control room the Frankenstein room), and the wind whistles through the eight-foot, single-pane windows at Waters Hall, whose deteriorating frames date back to 1923. The University of Illinois, meanwhile, has just completed a new $80 million institute for genomic research but has a backlog of repairs that will consume as much as $600 million. Chapel Hill’s outstanding maintenance bill: $400 million, on top of 25 new building projects. And so it goes, from coast to coast.
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According to conservative estimates, the nationwide repair bill could reach $40 billion. Asking well-heeled contributors to open their wallets isn’t an answer since most philanthropists want to see their names on a fancy new building, not a fixer-upper.